UK government urged to set up 'green investment bank'

Greenpeace activists unfurl 'green is good' banner on Bank of England as chancellor prepares to deliver pre-budget report
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Monday November 24 2008 13.59 GMT

Greenpeace activists drape a banner from the Bank of England. Photographer: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
The government was urged today to set up a "green investment bank" that could be used to finance renewable energy projects and ensure a vital new infrastructure is created.
The initiative was one of a number called for by Greenpeace whose activists scaled the Bank of England and unfurled a banner reading "Green is Good" ahead of the government's pre-budget report today.
The environmental group believes a specialist bank would help unlock the government's low-carbon aspirations by raising cash to build projects such as the energy "supergrid" in the North Sea.
This could connect many of the new wind farms in the area that are facing expensive power connections to the on-shore grid.
Greenpeace also wants to see ministers giving more support to tidal and wave projects as well tackling energy efficiency more robustly.
"Kickstarting the economy with a green investment — which would be clever, clean and courageous — is backed by Barack Obama, the CBI, the UN, Deutsche Bank and other major corporations. Doing so wouldn't just help the government to escape recession — it would help us to finally escape our dirty and expensive 20th energy system," said John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace.
The need for help was emphasised by a leading wave power company which announced it would bid for a lease from the Crown Estate to develop a major new energy scheme in the Pentland Firth.
Marine Current Turbines has appointed Cavendish Corporate Finance to underline its determination to raise money to invest in a possible project off Scotland. Marine Current Turbines is already backed by major French utility, EDF, and is pioneering projects off North Ireland while working to develop a second tidal farm off Wales alongside nPower.
"Harnessing the power of the Pentland Firth will be challenging and there are still substantial issues, in particular financing and grid connection, which will have to be addressed, warned Martin Wright, managing director of Marine Current Turbines.
Meanwhile, the Energy Savings Trust unveiled a new study, Power in Numbers, which highlighted what it believes is the enormous untapped potential for local and community-sized energy schemes.
"Today energy generated by communities could produce about 13% of all household needs. With the right policies in place this potential could rise to 54%," it argued.
The Energy Savings Trust, established to promote the efficient use of energy and a more low carbon lifestyle, said local action has been limited so far because of "non-technical" barriers. The trust wants to see community energy services companies (ESCOs) set up to initiate and finance projects.
Major savings can be made for energy users if wind, solar or biomass schemes are scaled up from individual to community-sized projects, argues the trust. Householders could save 34% of the cost of producing solar hot water and 18% of electricity from wind turbines, says the report.