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The world’s largest offshore wind developer has scaled back development targets and announced hundreds of job cuts as the renewable industry struggles under the pressure of rising costs.

Orsted, the company developing the Norfolk coast windfarm, Hornsea 3, also suspended shareholder payments in an effort to strengthen its balance sheet.

In common with the industry more broadly, Orsted has been hit by high inflation, raised interest rates, project delays and supply chain difficulties in recent years.

Up to 800 jobs are to go as the company – which owns a big chunk of the UK offshore wind energy capacity – pulls out of the Spanish, Portuguese and Norwegian wind markets.

Read more from Sky News:
‘Record fall in fossil fuels use’ across UK and EU in 2023

Wind power generation targets are being revised downwards at the Danish company. By the end of the decade it hopes to produce 35 to 38 gigawatts (GW), down from the previous target of 50 GW, as it hopes to reduce expenditure.

A gigawatt of energy can supply roughly a million homes with electricity.

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The announcement follows a UK auction to provide renewable energy which received no bids.

The price on offer was simply too low, industry said.

Orsted shares fell 2% on Wednesday having fallen more than 30% in the past six months since September.

As a result, billions was wiped off the company valuation and its share price reached a five-year low.

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The free £2,000 that 800,000 parents aren’t claiming | Sign up to Money newsletter

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The free £2,000 that 800,000 parents aren't claiming | Sign up to Money newsletter

Sky News has launched a free Money newsletter – bringing the kind of content you enjoy in the Money blog directly to your inbox.

Each Friday, subscribers get exclusive money-saving tips and features from the team behind the award-winning Money blog, which is read by millions of Britons every month.

Sign up today, and this week you’ll find the following in the newsletter:

  • The free £2,000 that 800,000 parents aren’t claiming
  • Our Verdict: Our blind tasters put spreadable butter to the test – and a cheaper supermarket version comes joint top with a big name
  • Money Problem: What can you do if your insurance company writes your car off after a garage says it will cost less than it’s worth to fix?

So, join our growing Money community – and thanks to the thousands of you who already have.

What to expect each week

The newsletter is your essential personal finance companion, with digestible information to help you make smarter decisions on your savings, mortgages, holiday money and much more.

As a subscriber, you get additional exclusive content that goes beyond the blog.

At a time when the global economy faces so much uncertainty, we have analysis from our trusted economics teams on the big stories that affect the cash in your pocket.

You also get first looks at popular features such as Money Problem, Cheap Eats, What It’s Really Like To Be A and our weekend Long Read.

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Jaguar Land Rover staff home for another day as company reels from cyber attack

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Jaguar Land Rover staff home for another day as company reels from cyber attack

Staff of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) have been told to stay home for a further day, Sky News understands, as the carmaker struggles to recover from a cyber attack.

Employees of the British company have now been told to remain off work until Wednesday. Previously, workers were directed not to return until Tuesday.

A decision on whether to bring staff back or not is being taken day by day, Sky News understands.

Money blog: One thing you should never have on your CV

JLR shut down its systems when it noticed the cyber attack on Tuesday last week, saying it had been “severely disrupted”.

Its retail activities were also impacted, but there was no evidence at the time that “any customer data has been stolen”, though JLR is reported to have flagged the risk of a data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Thousands of production staff at the UK’s largest car manufacturing sites in Halewood, Merseyside, and Solihull and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands are still being paid.

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Jaguar Land Rover is the UK’s latest major company to face a cyber incident, after Marks & Spencer had its operations disrupted for months.

After an attack over Easter, the high street chain only resumed click and collect services in August.

Attacks on the Co-op and Harrods were detected more swiftly, and had less of an impact.

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Jaguar Land Rover paused shipments to the US in April in response to President Trump’s new tariffs. A US-UK deal was subsequently agreed.

Reporting from The Sunday Times said JLR operations could be disrupted for “most of September” or worse.

On Wednesday, a group of English-speaking hackers claimed responsibility for the JLR attack via a Telegram platform called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, an amalgamation of the names of hacking groups Scattered Spider, Lapsus$ and ShinyHunters.

Scattered Spider, a loose group of relatively young hackers, were behind the Co-Op, Harrods and M&S attacks.

JLR suppliers Evtec, WHS Plastics, SurTec and OPmobility have had to temporarily lay off staff, impacting roughly 6,000 workers.

A spokesperson for JLR said on Monday: “We continue to work around the clock to restart our global applications in a controlled and safe manner.

“We are working with third-party cybersecurity specialists and alongside law enforcement.

“We are very sorry for the disruption this incident has caused. Our retail partners remain open and we will continue to provide further updates.”

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US tech and finance giants to join Trump on second UK state visit

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US tech and finance giants to join Trump on second UK state visit

The boss of Nvidia, the chipmaker which has become the world’s most valuable public company, is among the corporate chiefs lining up to accompany President Donald Trump on next week’s state visit to the UK.

Sky News has learnt that Jensen Huang, the Nvidia chief executive who has presided over the stratospheric rise in its valuation to more than $4trn, is expected to attend a state banquet at Windsor Castle hosted by King Charles III during the trip.

Sources said on Monday that Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI; Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive of asset management behemoth BlackRock; and Stephen Schwarzman, the boss of private equity giant Blackstone, were also expected to be among the attendees.

Money blog: One thing you should never have on your CV

Tim Cook, the Apple chief executive, has also been invited and may attend the state banquet, the sources added, while Jamie Dimon, the JP Morgan chief, is understood to be unable to make the trip to Britain because of existing diary commitments.

The attendance of figures such as Mr Huang and, potentially, Mr Altman, will fuel expectations that a wave of corporate deals and investments in the UK will be unveiled during President Trump’s unprecedented second state visit.

Closer collaboration between the two countries’ nuclear power industries is expected to be one of the main focal points of trade-related discussions during the three-day trip, as well as artificial intelligence and the broader technology industry.

More on Nvidia

President Trump’s visit will, however, come amid tensions over his tariff regime, with continuing uncertainty about the impact on British manufacturing sectors, including steel.

There are also continuing tensions between the UK government and major drugmakers over pricing, with the US administration pressuring pharmaceutical companies to slash the price of prescription medicines in the US.

An Nvidia spokesperson said, “We don’t comment on our executives’ travel schedules.”

BlackRock, Blackstone, Apple and JP Morgan declined to comment, while OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.

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