Recently in Energy Category

You have to wonder at the logic the Chancellor George Osborne applied to the Supplementary Rate of Corporation Tax for the North Sea oil and gas sector, pushing the rate up from 20 to 32 per cent in an attempt to appease the public on rocketing fuel costs.

For an oil and gas region which has already reached peak production, this could be a massive blow if the big players decide to mothball their UK North Sea operations until we reach the Chancellors hallowed $75 a barrel oil cut off.

Derek Leith, oil and gas partner at Ernst & Young believes the Government has backtracked on a commitment last year to ensuring investment in the North Sea by creating a stable and fair UK oil and gas tax regime.

Leith says, that script has been binned.

He said the rise from 20 to 32 per cent "demonstrates to industry in an unambiguous fashion that there is no real concept of fiscal stability in the UK."

Leith adds: "It is hard to comprehend that mature oil and gas fields, which already pay petroleum revenue tax as well as corporation tax, will now suffer a marginal tax rate of 81 per cent. Many companies will be frantically re-appraising their plans for capital investment in the UKCS in the coming days.

"The prospect that the rate will reduce if the oil price falls before a certain level, and the possibility of some measure of relief for new gas fields will carry little weight with oil companies in the light of such a significant increase in tax."

Like many men (and women) I am a sucker for a shiny new piece of technology.

Sleek cutting edge looks, functions I will never use (much less understand) and a fancy name all tick my consumer box.

So when the computer generated design for Aquamarine Power's updated Oyster wave device, pictured above, dropped in to my inbox I really had to share it.

Putting aside the name - Oyster 2 doesn't quite have the punch of Oyster 2.0, Oyster Plus or Oyster Evolution does it? - it is a lovely looking piece of industrial science fiction style kit.

A big day for one of the great renewable energy hopes in Scotland.
Aquamarine Power invited along First Minister Alex Salmond to officially switch on its Oyster device.

The technology is said to be the "world's largest working hydro-electric wave energy device" and was installed at Billia Croo near Stromness, Orkney, in the summer. 

It works by pumping high pressure water to an onshore hydro-electric turbine which feeds power into the National Grid.