The outlook for wind energy in the UK remains “very positive”, despite shifts in attitudes abroad, according to the founder of a major UK wind investment firm.
Read the full story: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/environment/outlook-for-uk-wind-energy-very-positive-despite-political-shift-abroad-says-schroders-greencoat-founder-5078591
Read the full story: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/environment/outlook-for-uk-wind-energy-very-positive-despite-political-shift-abroad-says-schroders-greencoat-founder-5078591
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00:00Hello, I'm Michael Crossland, business reporter with the Yorkshire Post here just with a brief
00:06look today at some interesting comments we've had around green energy in the UK which paint
00:12quite a positive and in some ways reassuring picture around investment for green energy.
00:20So one of the founding partners of the investment firm behind Greencoat UK Wind which is a big wind
00:27farm investor which has multiple sites here in Yorkshire has said that the outlook for wind
00:33energy in the UK remains in quotes very positive. So this is quite an interesting sentiment for a
00:40number of reasons, the first of which I'm sure is quite obvious. We've seen recently what seems to
00:46be a big shift in attitudes abroad particularly with the election of Donald Trump. The most obvious
00:53case of this is probably Trump's now famous drill baby drill quote but it's also worth noting that
01:00on his first day in office Trump signed an executive order to pause all leasing of federal waters for
01:07offshore wind projects. From a business view we've also seen BP announced in February that it was
01:14cutting renewable energy investment to focus on increasing oil and gas production. So there's a
01:21number of things occurring at the moment which could lead you to think that investing in green energy
01:28is perhaps not the most attractive prospect. However Stephen Lilly who is the founding partner of
01:34Schroeder's Greencoat who we mentioned earlier certainly doesn't seem to see things this way. Mr
01:40Lilly told the Yorkshire Post that while global political shifts can influence broader sentiment the UK
01:47government has consistently reinforced its commitment to expanding renewables. He also said that his
01:53sense is that the public support for wind energy remains strong. Mr Lilly also said that the UK remains
02:00somewhat isolated to what happens in the US. He did note however that there are some challenges for the
02:07sector in the UK noting that equity markets remain challenging. He also said there is a need for
02:15continued investment into the grid infrastructure to accommodate capacity for renewables. Mr Lilly followed
02:22this up however by saying that overall he thinks the outlook for wind energy in the UK remains very positive.
02:31So quite an interesting and positive picture from Mr Lilly about how things look in the UK. That's all for the time
02:40being. I'm Michael Crossland reporting for the Yorkshire Post.