Renewable deals soar to £910m

The UK renewable energy sector saw merger and acquisition deals worth £910m last year, around 11 per cent of all European green deals, a report from consultancy Pricewaterhouse-Coopers will show today.

Between them, the UK and Germany account for a third of the activity in the EU, the report says.

Although overall green deal values globally dropped by 32 per cent to $33bn (£20bn) in 2010, the volume of deals rose, as confidence returned to the sector and buyers and sellers came to market with more realistic expectations.

And despite some regulatory uncertainty, the market is expected to remain strong throughout 2011, buoyed by a renewed environmentalism in the US and nuclear power groups' increasing moves into other forms of green energy.

The most dominant market segment last year was energy efficiency, which overtook hydropower, which led the field in 2009.