In Brief

Welcome Ørsted
DONG Energy (Danish Oil and Natural Gas) has announced it is changing its company name to Ørsted following a strategic transformation from fossil fuels to renewables (largely offshore wind), and the recent divestment of its upstream oil and gas business. The roll out of the new name and design across the markets in which DONG Energy is present will take place from 6 November.

Henrik Poulsen, CEO of DONG Energy, said: “2017 will be remembered as the year when offshore wind became cheaper than black energy, as demonstrated by the recent tenders for offshore wind in Germany and the UK. The time is now right for us to change our name to demonstrate that we want to help create such a world.”

Funding opportunity
Small businesses and their larger supply chains in Scotland’s energy sector can now access up to £1 million in funding from the Circular Economy Investment Fund. The £18 million fund offers investment and supports work that will deliver circular economy growth. It is administered by Zero Waste Scotland and backed by the Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

UK-first
E.ON has completed the installation and grid connection of its 10MW battery at the Blackburn Meadows biomass plant near Sheffield – a new energy storage project that will help keep power supplies stable and support the range of power generation sources feeding into the UK’s national grid. The 10 megawatt (MW) lithium-ion battery is housed in four 40ft long shipping containers. It has the same power as roughly 100 family cars and holds the same amount of energy as 500,000 mobile phone batteries.