Closing summary
Time to wrap up…
The UK handed out record offshore windfarm contracts today, in what has been hailed as a breakthrough moment for the government’s ambition to get clean power by 2030.
12 new offshore projects were awarded contracts after ministers increased the amount of funding available to developers to help them deliver their plans without raising bills for consumers.
The funding was awarded to 8.4 gigawatts (GW) of offshore windfarm capacity, or enough to generate clean electricity for more than 12m British homes before the end of the decade. They were awarded a contract price of between £89.49 and £91.20 a megawatt-hour (MWh) in 2024 prices.
Meanwhile BP has said it expects to write down the value of its struggling green energy business by as much as $5bn (£3.7bn), as it refocuses on fossil fuels under its new chair, Albert Manifold.
The FTSE 100 energy company said the multi-billion dollar charges were “primarily attributable to the gas and low carbon energy segment” of its business.
It comes as BP scales back its clean energy projects as part of a “fundamental rest” of its strategy, first announced by its former chief executive Murray Auchincloss last year.
Coca-Cola has reportedly abandoned its Costa Coffee sale, after bids from potential suitors came in lower than expected, according to the Financial Times.
It reported that Coca-Cola ended talks with bidders for Costa in December, ending an auction process that had attracted a range of private equity investors and lasted several months.
US stocks slip at the open as investors digest bank earnings
The S&P 500 index has slipped at the open in the US, as investors digest quarterly earnings from the likes of Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
The blue-chip index is down 0.3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped 0.18%. The Nasdaq Composite is also down by about 0.6%
