BT Airs Its Plans to Build Wind Farms (19-Oct-2007)
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Full story: BT Airs Its Plans to Build Wind Farms (19-Oct-2007)
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BT yesterday joined the battle for environmentally conscious customers with plans to launch a wind farm scheme aimed at generating a quarter of its electricity by 2016.
The telecoms giant is in talks with investors and renewable energy partners about raising £250 million to build 120 wind turbines on sites across Britain.
The group has already applied for planning permission for three sites in Cornwall, Orkney and Shetland and is weighing up other suitable sites on its own or adjacent land.
As eco-friendliness becomes universally accepted as a worthy cause, companies are jostling to prove their green credentials and tap into the lucrative market for associated products. The telecoms giant is the latest in a series of blue-chips seeking to position itself as a champion of the environment.
BT insisted that, as well as displaying responsibility to the environment such a move also made good business sense. Potential clients, particularly government departments, frequently consider a company’s green credentials as part of a contract bidding process, it said. The group grills its own potential suppliers on their eco-friendliness too, it said.
Although funding and third-party partners are not yet in place, BT said that it felt compelled to unveil its plans rather than worry local communities by appearing furtive.
Under the project, pioneered by Hanif Lalani, the BT finance director, up to £250 million is to be raised to fund the acquisition and building of the necessary equipment. Investors in the project will “own” the energy but will have a guarantee from BT that it will buy it back from them.
BT is one of Britain’s biggest consumers of electricity with an annual requirement of about 0.7 per cent of the UK’s entire consumption.
The group estimates that its wind farms could generate a total of 250 megawatts of electricity – 25 per cent of its existing requirements – by 2016. It claims that this would prevent the release of 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year compared with coal-fired power generation.
The wind farm project forms part of wider efforts by the group to reduce by 80 per cent its carbon emissions by 2016 compared with 1996.
The group’s claims are expected to be closely scrutinised by the green lobby. The Advertising Standards Authority recently warned companies about too easily associating their products with “buzz” phrases such as “carbon offsetting” and “carbon neutral” without providing evidence to back up their claims.
The warning followed a flurry of complaints about unsubstantiated environmental boasts by some of the world’s best-known companies, including Toyota, Volkswagen and Scottish & Southern Energy, BT already boasts of having Britain’s biggest “green” electricity contract. It recently renewed a three-year deal with npower and British Gas, under which they provide BT with electricity from renewable sources such as wind and hydroelectric projects. The company claims to have already reduced emissions by 60 per cent through the deal, as well as through other measures such as using diesel vehicles and energy-efficient buildings.
The group said it had many suitable sites for wind farms which currently contain only radio masts and are not close to residential areas.
According to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), dozens of large companies in the UK are considering building their own turbines. However, the slowness of the planning process means that demand exceeds supply and there is a shortage of “green power” for big business.
Sails drive
Factories are sprouting windmills to cut energy costs and burnish green credentials.
—Ford led the way in 2004, building two turbines at its Dagenham plant in London. They generate enough power to supply 2,013 homes
—Nissan followed in 2005 with six turbines at its Sunderland factory. It is expected to unveil a bigger project soon
—Michelin, the tyre maker, has two turbines at its Dundee facility
—Pirrelli has planning permission for turbines at its factory in Carlisle
- Source: Times Online
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BT Invests £250m In Wind Farms (19-Oct-07)
BT upped the ante in the green-energy stakes yesterday by revealing plans to lead a £250m wind farm project to generate renewable power that will supply a quarter of its energy needs by 2016.
It is the largest corporate wind power project to be launched outside the energy sector and puts pressure on other large UK companies with large land banks to consider similar action.
BT is one of the biggest consumers of electricity within the UK with its annual consumption accounting for around 0.7 per cent of the country's energy usage.
The company has already reduced its carbon emissions by 60 per cent since 1996 and expects the new wind farm project to help the company hit its new target of 80 per cent by 2016.
Power generation is hardly BT's core business, but Hanif Lalani, the company's finance director, said it was important that the company leads the way on reducing its carbon footprint as its customers demand it. "Customers want us to generate products and services using green energy. No doubt you will see other corporates doing what we are doing today," he said.
John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said the UK derived around 4 per cent of its energy from renewable means, a figure it needs to treble over the next decade.
"I hope more companies will follow the example set by BT ... this is not the latest trend, this is the beginning of a cultural change. We all have to do this," he said.
BT has identified three sites on land it owns in Cornwall, the Shetland Islands and the Orkney Islands that could be windy enough to build wind farms, and is considering other appropriate sites.
It said that its wind farms could generate a total of 250 megawatts of electricity, enough to power a city the size of Coventry. The project could save around 500,000 tonnes of carbon being emitted into the atmosphere, which is equivalent to a quarter of a million return air trips to New York, BT said. Richard Tarboton, head of BT's energy division, said: "That's a substantial saving not just for BT, but for the UK as a whole."
BT is looking for partners to participate in the project, from both the financial and energy sectors, and intends to maintain a minority stake in the venture. Mr Lalani said he does not expect a short-term return on investment, but said that it will secure its energy supply and improve its reputation among its customers.
Wind power is the fastest-growing renewable energy sector in the UK, dwarfing the progress in sourcing power from solar and tidal facilities, with wind seen as the leading factor in the fight against climate change.
Mr Hutton said that changes to the planning regime are needed to stimulate investment in wind farms and that the Government is also keen to harness other renewable energy forms such as wave and tidal power.
- Source: The Independent
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Britain's BT Goes Green as Banks on Wind (18-Oct-07)
LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - BT Group Plc (BT.L: Quote, Profile , Research), Britain's largest telecoms operator, plans to build wind turbines across the country in a 250 million pound ($509 million) project to generate one quarter of its power needs by 2016.
BT, one of Britain's biggest consumers of energy, said on Thursdayit had submitted planning applications to erect three, 50 metre test turbines in Goonhilly, in England's western county of Cornwall, and on the Scottish islands of Orkney and Shetland.
"There is a pressing need for industry to cut carbon in ways that makes business sense," said BT Finance Director Hanif Lalani. "BT has already achieved a 60 percent reduction in its carbon emissions and is committed to reducing them further to 80 percent by 2016.
"Our wind energy plans play an important part in reaching that target."
In what BT called the largest corporate wind power project in Britain -- and possibly Europe -- by a non-energy company, the group plans to build around 120 turbines across the country on, or adjacent to, windy land it already owns.
BT, which hopes to start generating power from 2012, said it planned to raise third-party funding for the project from renewable energy partners, which would prevent the cost of the plans ending up on its own balance sheet.
LOCAL COMMUNITIES
The main opponents of such wind farms are local inhabitants, who argue the massive turbines are noisy and spoil views, although concerns have also been raised by bird lovers worried they might interfere with the flight paths of migrating birds.
BT said it was "very keen" to ensure that local communities were aware of and backed its plans to dig deeper into green energy sources to combat climate change.
BT hopes its wind farms will generate 250 megawatts of electricity -- enough to meet the power needs of 122,000 homes -- preventing the release of 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year compared with coal generation. This is equivalent to a quarter of a million return air trips between London and New York.
BT, which said it already buys the bulk of UK energy generated by renewable sources, said it would feed the power from its turbine farms into Britain's power distributor, the National Grid (NG.L: Quote, Profile , Research), and then buy it back.
The company faces an annual electricity bill of about 150 million pounds, but a spokesman said the company was likely to be able to buy its own generated electricity back on "favourable terms compared to the market price".
Although BT is focusing on onshore wind farms, which it says have a well-established and predictable planning process and business case, it did not rule out branching out into solar or offshore power generation projects in the future.
The British government subsidises the renewable energy market by roughly 500 million pounds per year and, although turbines have sprung up across parts of the country, there have been delays in clinching planning permission and linking up projects to the national power grid.
Nevertheless, the country's goal remains to generate around 10 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010, up from just under five percent currently. By 2020, the government hopes to generate 20 percent of power from green sources.
- Source: Reuters
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