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4 | 10TH - 16TH JUNE 2016 | UTILITY WEEK Record year for renewables investment 2015 was a record year for investment in renewables, according to an annual report from REN21. £198bn spent globally to add 147GW of capacity. 1.85TW Total worldwide renewable capacity at the end of 2015. 60% The proportion of all new capacity which came from renewables. £15.4bn Amount invested in the UK. 4th Britain's spot in the investment rankings. 3.7GW Volume of new solar capacity installed in the UK. STORY BY NUMBERS Npower says complaints handling is improving Seven days... N power has defended its customer service record, saying that overall complaints have dropped since 2015 despite the number of complaints escalated to Citizens Advice increasing. The latest figures published by Citizens Advice showed Npower in the bottom three of the 20 largest suppliers in the UK for customer complaints, which increased from 565.4 per 100,000 customers at the end of last year to 652.8 in the first quarter of 2016. Npower told Utility Week that despite these figures, overall complaints had dropped by 68 per cent between March 2015 (83,859) and March 2016 (26,170). Npower director of domestic customer services Chris Thewlis said: "We're disappointed to see the increase in customers who have taken their complaint to Citizens Advice during the first three months of this year. "Over the past 12 months, we have seen a significant reduc- tion in the overall number of complaints. We're continuing to work very hard to reduce the numbers of customers who need to escalate their issues." The figures follow a difficult year for the big six supplier which, at the end of December, faced a record fine of £26 mil- lion from Ofgem for billing and complaint handling failures. The supplier faces a ban on proac- tive domestic sales and advertis- ing unless it meets targets for improvements agreed with the regulator. The Citizens Advice figures also revealed that Extra Energy received 1,682 complaints per 100,000 customers – the highest complaints ratio recorded in the league table's five-year history. SJ National media Finland raises its bet on nuclear power Despite the current nuclear new- build reactor in Finland being almost a decade late, a company called Fennovoima is backing a project worth up to €7 billion to build another one, the 1,200MW Hanhikivi 1, due to be completed by 2024. If finished, it could provide Finland with about 10 per cent of its electricity, boost the country's eco- nomic growth, and be a boon for a group of local companies including Russia's Rosatom. Financial Times, 5 June Farmers protest green energy subsidy cuts Farmers are leading a backlash against the government's latest cut to green energy subsidies, warning it will deprive the struggling agricul- tural sector of valuable income. In a consultation quietly pub- lished late last month, the Depart- ment of Energy and Climate Change proposed slashing subsidies for anaerobic digestion plants. Farmers' union the NFU warned the changes could sound the "death knell" for new biogas on farms. The Telegraph, 5 June Fixing Flint 'could cost $216m', says report The projected cost to repair infrastructure aer the city of Flint, Michigan's two-year water contamination crisis is several magnitudes higher than what has been allocated to fix it, a new state report has found. The report lays out a bruising lit- any of infrastructure fixes estimated at $216 million. The report suggests $80 million is needed to remove about 10,000 lead pipes across the city – more than three times what Michigan governor Rick Snyder has proposed for a forthcoming state budget. The Guardian, 6 June "We remain committed to the elimination of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies" The G7 nations have agreed a landmark deal to end the majority of fossil fuel subsidies by 2025.