Renewable energy

the week ahead

The big question for shareholders in Frasers Group at the half-year stage is whether the FTSE 100 group is as confident as it was in the summer that profits this year could hit £500 million, despite the cost of living crisis. The company, whose chains include Sports Direct, House of Fraser, Evans Cycles and Flannels, swung to an adjusted pre-tax profit of £344.8 million in the year to April, marking a dramatic recovery from the £39.9 million loss in the previous year and pushing the shares up to levels not achieved in eight years.

Hydrogen power company ITM Power has delayed its trading update as its new chief executive assesses how to reset the business.

uk news

The government is to pay about £100 million to buy a Chinese state company out of the Sizewell C nuclear plant.

MOVE

Sir Hugo Drax, a millionaire businessman with a mysterious past, was the memorable villain in Ian Fleming’s third James Bond novel, Moonraker . The novel, which differs from the camp 1979 Bond film starring Roger Moore as 007, was Fleming’s most personal one and to create his characters he drew inspiration from his friends.

business

A renewable energy developer has hired an adviser to aid the expansion of its tidal array project.

business

A renewable energy developer has sold a majority stake in its tidal engineering division. Simec Atlantis Energy said that managers of its Advanced Tidal Engineering and Services division were buying it out.

Environment

Ministers should block future subsidies for large power plants burning wood, experts have said, after a UK company was linked to the destruction of intact forests (Adam Vaughan writes).

POLITICS

A cabinet minister held three meetings with a Chinese state-owned nuclear power company for which no minutes have been retained, The Times can reveal.

STORIES OF THE YEAR

It is a blustery September day on the Suffolk coast. A heron takes flight over piles of dirt on a scratchy bit of wasteland. The future site of the Sizewell C nuclear power station is not much to look at, but one day it could be home to two new reactors powering six million homes.

Britain could save at least £100 billion if it stopped wasting so much energy, an investor in the sector has said.