Projected to fail: the schemes that fell short of the dreams

Terry Macalister
The Guardian, Saturday 21 March 2009

The renewable power sector has seen share prices hit much harder than others because it is still seen as relatively risky and speculative. Wind and solar projects still rely on government subsidies to keep afloat but the credit crunch and recession have made a difficult situation much worse. Some companies are in trouble, while others are postponing projects, saying they need more subsidies or other changes in legislation to make them more viable.
Sun Microsystems
The computer technology group has suspended development work on solar and wind projects for on-site generation at its Guillemont Park campus in Surrey. It will not be lifted until the legislation is revised, Sun says. The firm believes it is impossible to make a viable business case for such projects under current carbon accounting rules for on-site renewables, which "penalise" companies that would like to invest in renewable-energy generation.
East Midlands airport
The airport was planning to instal large wind turbines that would provide about 10% of the site's electricity demand and save about 1,250 tonnes of carbon. Changes in carbon-reporting guidelines "have effectively removed any benefit from this work and fundamentally changed the business case which the investment is predicated on".
Shell
Shell decided it could no longer justify investing in wind or solar schemes. It pulled out of the British wind sector last year, saying opportunities were better in the US. It now believes that only biofuels, and carbon capture and storage make sense, alongside oil and gas.
E.ON
The economics of the world's biggest offshore wind farm project are "on a knife edge", the chief executive of one of the companies behind it has warned. E.ON UK said the viability of its London Array project, a planned 1,000-megawatt wind farm in the Thames estuary, has been called into question by the falling prices of oil, gas and carbon dioxide emissions permits.
Centrica
The parent company of British Gas planned to invest in 1,500MW of offshore wind capacity but is now reviewing its investment plans. Sam Laidlaw, Centrica's chief executive, said: "It is very expensive, both in capital cost and in maintenance."
BT
The telecoms company is trying to develop renewable-energy projects to allow it to generate its own green power. This includes a 250MW wind farm, believed to be the biggest scheme outside of the pure energy sector. But BT says government accounting rules for on-site renewables are threatening its schemes and it may not go ahead without a change in regulation.
Siemens Wind Power
The German-owned engineering firm plans to make 400 redundancies at three sites in Denmark. It said that the 30% growth in the wind sector seen over recent years could be reduced to 20%. Others believe that figure could be zero or even a minus figure.
Aguçadoura Wave Park
A pioneering wave-energy project in Portugal has fallen victim to the global economic downturn after the collapse of its majority owner, Babcock & Brown. To make matters worse for the project, the wave-energy converters have suffered various technical hitches and have been brought on land for repairs.