A WEEK before the government publishes its long-awaited energy white paper, two of the consortium looking to develop clean coal technology have announced that they will move forward with their plans. The first to jump was Scottish Power, which said it was moving to the final feasibility study of a scheme to revamp Longannet.

The plans for the two Fife power plants involve the replacement of the current boilers with what are known as super-critical boilers, which will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%. The technology burns coal at ultra-high temperatures and pressures. A further phase of the scheme will see carbon capture technology fitted. This will take CO2 emissions and feed them into coal seams.

This may be the moment, senior ministers say, to capitalise on one of Britain's greatest assets, the 45ft tide that races through the Severn estuary, making it the second best place in the world - after Canada's Bay of Fundy - to harness tidal energy. By building a barrage, they hope to be able to meet a large chunk of Britain's electricity needs from a single renewable, reliable source. It is just one of a number of clean energy technologies they want to employ to keep the lights on, while cutting back the pollution that causes global warming.

Energy giant BP revealed yesterday that it had brought a new partner into the project for a world-first carbon-capture and storage scheme at Peterhead. International mining group Rio Tinto of the UK has formed a new company with BP to develop decarbonised energy projects around the world. The hydrogen-fuelled power projects planned for the north-east and California will become part of the new jointly-owned firm called Hydrogen Energy.

Plans to clean up two of the most polluting power plants in the UK were revealed by ScottishPower yesterday. The £1billion proposals involve installing new turbines and boilers to cut carbon emissions by a fifth at Longannet power station, in Fife, and Cockenzie, just outside Edinburgh. The new "supercritical" turbines and boilers would burn coal at ultra-high temperatures and pressures. A feasibility study into the project was revealed yesterday as First Minister Alex Salmond visited Longannet on his first official engagement.

Plans have been drawn up to upgrade the North-East's first wind farm with bigger and more powerful turbines. The Great Eppleton site near Hetton-le-Hole was installed by Amec Wind 10 years ago and is one of the few sites to use two-bladed turbines. These are now considered to be an ageing technology and one of the site's four turbines has been reduced to one blade.

Tom Shelley reports on a forward-looking area of heavy engineering where Britain still leads the world Within the next few months, the world's first megawatt tidal flow turbine is to be installed and commissioned in Northern Ireland.

Chanellor Gordon Brown plans to invest up to £600m to develop 'carbon capture' technology to transform coal into a clean fuel by piping harmful extracts into caverns under the North Sea. He wants Britain to take the lead in capturing climate-changing carbon dioxide and believes there is a multi-billion pound market in India and the Far East for UK expertise. The Treasury has asked San Francisco-based engineer PB Power to investigate the project, find suitable potential partners and recommend whether investment is worthwhile. A decision is expected by the end of the year. Financial Mail understands the Government is impressed with a plan by Centrica, owner of British Gas, to build a 'clean' coal-powered station in Teesside. This would be the first new coal-fired power station in the UK since 1974.

PUTTING a wind turbine on the roof of your house - like Tory leader David Cameron - is a waste of time, according to experts. The turbines, which cost at least £1,500, are next to useless in cities because there's not enough wind to make them work. Dr Luke Myers, of the Sustainable Energy Group, said: "Putting them in places where there's no wind is a fool's errand really. "No one wants to spend £1,500 on a turbine which doesn't work." Wind speeds at house roof level in a city like London, where Cameron lives, are only around 4.6 metres a second. But turbines sold by stores such as B&Q are designed to work at 12.5 metres a second. Brain Mark, on the Department of Trade and Industry Renewables Advisory Board, said the benefits had been "oversold" by green campaigners. He added: "It would be wonderful - if it worked." Home solar roof panels used to heat water are often a better bet and recoup costs in 10 years.

Several of Britain’s growing fleet of wind farms ground to a halt on Thursday as severe gales battered the country. The storms, which caused transport chaos and left hundreds of thousands without electricity, proved too much for some wind farms. Most turbines, which are intentionally sited in some of the windiest parts of the country, automatically stop spinning for safety reasons when wind speeds exceed 25 meters per second, or about 55 miles per hour.

Campbell Dunford, CEO of REF, said: “This important modelling exercise shows that even with best efforts a large wind carpet in the UK would have a low capacity credit, and be a real handful to manage. This isn’t the best way to encourage China and India to move towards the low-carbon economy. As a matter of urgency, for the planet’s sake, we need to bring forward a much broader range of low carbon generating technologies, including the full sweep of renewables. Wind has a place, but it must not be allowed to squeeze out other technologies that have more to offer.”

The claimed benefits of wind energy are called into question today by a study that finds few wind farms in England and Wales produce as much electricity as the Government has forecast. The first independent study to rate farms according to how much electricity they produce shows that wind farms south of the Scottish border are not generating as much as the Government assumed when it set the target of producing a tenth of Britain’s energy from renewables by 2010 and 15 per cent by 2015. Despite millions being spent on wind turbines, the study by the Renewable Energy Foundation shows that England and Wales are not windy enough to allow large turbines to work at the rates claimed for them. The foundation, a charity that aims to evaluate wind and other forms of renewable energy on an equal basis, based its study of more than 500 turbines now in operation on data supplied by companies to Ofgem, the energy regulator.

Some onshore windfarms are falling woefully short of their electricity generating targets, throwing into doubt Government targets of having about 15% of the nation’s energy coming from wind by 2020. Research by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) found onshore windfarms in remote locations only are generating above expectation - typically in the north of Scotland where the cost of linking to the National Grid is far greater.

Wind turbine manufacturer Clipper Windpower tumbled from recent highs today after it announced an issue relating to machining tolerances in its gearboxes and a short delay in turbine deliveries. As a result of the issue, the group said it has decided to introduce an additional measurement process during machining to ensure gearbox tolerances are met.

Home wind turbines have become the must-have home improvement among people eager to help save the planet and flaunt their green credentials. Dubbed ‘the ultimate green fashion statement’, are selling in their thousands amid claims they can cut household electricity bills by 30 per cent. But now environmental campaigners say the windmills are not quite what they claim to be - and may actually do more harm than good. As well as being noisy and unsightly, they barely produce enough electricity to power a hairdryer in many houses.

A 'clean coal' plant that would capture and bury most of its carbon emissions could become the first coal-fuelled power station to be built in the UK since the seventies, under plans announced by British Gas owner Centrica. Carbon from the Teesside plant would be pumped for storage under the North Sea Although not the first 'clean coal' project in the UK, the £1bn plant would produce almost zero emissions and would be the first with built-in carbon capture and storage (CCS), a spokesman for Centrica told edie.

HIGHLANDS and Islands Enterprise is planning to turn an entire island such as Islay or Mull into a testing ground for environmental technology. Willie Roe, HIE's chairman, said the development agency would attempt to slash carbon consumption on a selected island by more than half in order to demonstrate the latest green technology. Click to learn more... Under the scheme, which should start next year, renewable energy, efficient heating systems and environmentally friendly transport would be combined on a scale which has yet to be tried in the UK.

Wind turbines should not be fixed to domestic rooftops – according to a supplier of the devices. Peter Osborne, managing director of FutureEnergy, told delegates at yesterday’s Sustainable Energy and Energy Efficiency Expo: “We are not in the habit of turning away business but we do believe in ethics.”

power plant labelled one of the worst in the UK for pollution is to supply energy generated from wood shavings. The Didcot A station will now provide electricity for 100,000 homes created with the use of carbon-neutral fuels, as well as coal-fired power production. A new facility will use bio-mass fuels which absorb as much carbon dioxide when growing as they create when burnt.

LONDON (Reuters) - A mere breath of a breeze disturbs the quiet of autumn in south London and the wind turbine on the gable of Donnachadh McCarthy's home turns lazily. The morning sun casts shadows from solar panels onto the walls of the house and filters through the windows into his living room. "I'm in surplus. I am now providing money to the grid," he said with a grin, gesturing at a red light winking on the wall that marks the progress of his domestic power station. "I have exported 20 percent more electricity than I've imported this year ... the average carbon footprint is 8.5 tonnes in the EU, whereas mine is less than half a tonne."