On 14th November Glennmont held the latest in the series of investor seminars, focussing attention this time on the long term security of regulation supporting renewable energy. Lord Deben, the chair of the UK Government Climate Change Committee and a former Secretary of State for Environment spoke about the drivers behind UK regulation and the Acts of Parliament that define it. He described how renewable energy was necessary in order both to reduce the impact of climate change and also to provide security of power supply at a time when capacity margins are becoming very tight. He described how neither targets nor levels of support can be changed without rescinding the Climate Change Act, a piece of primary legislation that has near unanimous support in Parliament.
Michelle Davies, the Head of Alternative Energy at law firm Eversheds, spoke about trends in renewable energy investing and the European Policy measures that support it. She described the working of various support mechanisms across Europe and gave some clear insights into future trends in investing, where she predicted that onshore wind is likely to benefit from some slow down in offshore development in the UK.
Prior to the seminar Lord Deben gave some additional insights into the UK political support for renewable energy in a discussion with Peter Dickson. Both the interview and the highlights of the seminar can be seen by following the links below:
Short video clip with key opinions from Lord Deben: http://youtu.be/KcENGo73htg
Longer film showing a more rounded summary of both Lord Deben and Michelle Davies: http://youtu.be/rbKsXFqMyFo
The Interview with Lord Deben in full: http://youtu.be/UoBgpISoffE
Lord Deben
