Peter Atherton, Citigroup’s head of European utility sector research, said he was “surprised” the Government had published Tuesday’s draft Bill when it still appeared to be very uncertain as to how key proposals would work. “After two years, the Government seems no closer to being able to square its desire to support new nuclear with its political imperative not to be seen to be subsidising nuclear build,” he wrote in a research note. He said the Government did not seem to have “much confidence in its own proposals” for how “contracts for difference” (CfD), intended to guarantee return on investments, would work. The Department of Energy and Climate Change said the reforms had been designed “to provide investors with transparency, longevity and certainty”, and that ... Continue reading →
The German development bank KfW invested €24bn in building energy efficiency from 2009-2011. Photograph, Berlin: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images Business secretary Vince Cable, responsible for the UK's Green investment bank (GIB), visits the German development bank KfW today, a day after the law establishing the GIB was published. It will be an interesting visit. When I met Leon Macioszek, director of KfW in Berlin on Tuesday, I pointed out that the GIB can't actually borrow. This rendered him speechless as his mind wrestled hopelessly with the contradiction. But I am sure he will recover in time to tell Cable about the bank's work. There is a lot of it, and much of it very relevant to the UK's troubled Green deal plan to make 14m British ... Continue reading →