According to a Royal Bank of Scotland press release last week:

London-based InfraRed Capital Partners Limited, one of the UK’s leading environmental infrastructure investors, has acquired three ground-mounted solar parks in Cornwall with debt financing from a consortium of banks – Royal Bank of Scotland Corporate & Institutional Banking, HSBC Bank Plc and Santander Global Banking and Markets.

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After a lot of prevarication the Department of Energy and Climate Change web site now proudly proclaims that:

Consultation on the Renewables Obligation Banding Review is now closed.

In a press release yesterday the Secretary of State, Ed Davey, said that:

More on ROCs Review Results Published at Long Last

Some more background information has come to light concerning the apparent confusion within the UK government about their renewables obligations.  The Guardian has printed what it claims is a letter dated July 9th from George Osborne to Ed Davey discussing in particular a reduction in ROCs for onshore wind. Quoting from that letter:

More on Dave, Ed and George Argue About Energy

Earlier this month Irish based GT Energy announced that they had:

Signed a Memorandum of Understanding with E.ON UK, one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies, to develop five new deep-geothermal heat and distribution systems. Under the terms of the partnership, the two companies will collaborate on five projects to tap into the heat that occurs naturally only a few kilometres underground, providing a reliable source of clean energy for homes and businesses.

However they didn't reveal the location of those five plants. Now they have taken the next step, and they announced today that they have:

More on GT Energy Announce a "Pioneering Geothermal Energy Project" in Manchester

Amongst a plethora of TL(and longer)As it is our sad duty to report today that the Renewable Energy Association are very disappointed by the (in)actions of the Department of Energy and Climate Change.  The REA recently published the Summer 2012 edition of their "REA News" magazine. Here it is:

As you can see, in her introduction Gaynor Hartnell, REA Chief Executive, expressed the view that:

More on DECC Dashes REA's Hopes on the ROCs

The Farmer's Guardian reports this morning that:

The 8MW project will provide the South West of England based farm with a guaranteed rental income over the next 25 years, and enough electricity to power 2,500 homes. The 27,924 PV panels will be installed over five interconnected fields on a site comprising 15.4 hectares, [at  Marley Thatch Farm] near South Brent in Devon.

The report makes it clear that in this day and age the financial incentive for this (and other large scale solar PV farms in the area) is no longer the Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs for short):

More on South Hams DC Approves 8 MW Solar Park at Marley Thatch Farm near South Brent