Energy Policy

Citizens’ assemblies will decide what action should be taken on the climate crisis, the Treasury’s ability to stymie green measures will be neutralised and the Green Investment Bank will be revived under proposals set to be key planks of the Liberal Democrats’ general election bid. Along with sweeping reform of Whitehall, including bringing back a department of climate change, local government would be given new powers to cut emissions, there would be a moratorium on airport expansion and an end to fracking, and the UK would achieve net-zero carbon status by 2045 – five years sooner than the current government goal. “Moving to net-zero is a complete game-changer,” Wera Hobhouse, the Lib Dem spokesperson for the environment and climate change, told the Guardian. “The whole of government and society need to understand the need to get to net-zero – everything we do needs to be seen in terms of that target.” Under the proposals to be presented to the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth this weekend, a new minister, who will attend cabinet, would be appointed chief secretary to the Treasury and oversee policy across departments to ensure it meets the zero-carbon pledge. “The biggest hurdle [to climate policies] was always the Treasury,” said Hobhouse. Soon after Theresa May unveiled her zero-carbon target this summer, her chancellor, Philip Hammond, claimed it would cost too much. “Having a chief secretary to keep reminding the chancellor of the need to get to net-zero is key,” said Hobhouse. To gain public support for urgent action on emissions, the Lib Dems would convene citizens’ assemblies across the country to debate new measures. These would include ways to ensure a massive expansion of electric vehicles and better public transport, and how to encourage new technology such as heating homes with hydrogen instead of gas. Councils would also be given greater powers over planning, for instance to promote electric vehicles, cycling and walking.

Guardian 14th Sept 2019 read more »

The ability of powerful incumbent actors to resist technological or institutional changes that threaten their vested interests is a core part of the literature on sustainable energy transitions, but more often asserted in general than tested in specific cases. This article presents analysis of a detailed study of the introduction of a Capacity Market (CM) for electricity in Great Britain in the period 2010–2011, using a process tracing approach. The study finds evidence to support the view that large electricity generators have a significant degree of structural power in relation to decision makers, that such companies did lobby the government through the CM policy process, and that the ideas deployed had an effect on the shape of the CM. However, there were also divisions amongst the large generating companies on whether they wanted a CM or not, and what its design should be. We also show that the institutional circumstances of the CM policy process were quite specific, giving opportunities for lobbying that may not be present in other cases. We conclude it is essential to have an analysis of incumbent power that is contingent on institutional context, the specific nature of interests and the deployment of ideas. To counter incumbent power and structural dependency during sustainable energy transformation, an independent but legitimate body is needed to the direction of policy.

IGov 13th Sept 2019 read more »

Lord Browne, 71, ran BP for more than a decade and was revered as the Sun King of the oil industry. Now, however, he agrees with the Extinction Rebellion campaigners that there is an urgent need to act to tackle global warming. “No one in the energy industry sat back and said, ‘Let’s change the climate’,” he says. “They said, ‘Let’s provide something to give people light heat mobility’, but the unintended consequence is climate change and that has to be something that engineering has to solve, along with public policy.” Both businesses and consumers need more encouragement to change their behaviour, he suggests. He is in favour of a carbon tax by which individuals and companies would pay for any environmentally damaging activity. “We have all the technologies we need to tackle climate change. The problem is they’re too expensive because they’re not used often enough. We don’t need to discover something. We need to apply it, and so we need an incentive for people — a negative one is if you put CO2 in the atmosphere you pay. Without [a carbon tax] we will not be able to handle climate change.” The money raised, he argues, should be redistributed back to the population. “This tax is not to generate revenue; it’s to change behaviour.”

Times 14th Sept 2019 read more »

A total of 18 high-tech electric vehicle (EV) charging points are now available at an important single location within one of the UK’s most forward-thinking universities.

Edinburgh Reporter 13th Sept 2019 read more »

Clean energy has reached a tipping point: It’s now cheaper to build and use a combination of wind, solar, batteries, and other clean tech in the U.S. than to build most proposed natural gas plants. Utilities want to spend $90 billion to build new gas plants and $30 billion to build new gas pipelines—but if they used renewables instead, consumers could save $29 billion in electricity bills, according to a new report from the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute.

Fast Company 11th Sept 2019 read more »

Put together the best solar panels money can buy, super-efficient batteries and decades of car-making know-how and, theoretically, a vehicle might run forever. That’s the audacious motivation behind a project by Toyota Motor Corp., Sharp Corp. and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan, or NEDO, to test a Prius that could revolutionize transportation. “The solar car’s advantage is that — while it can’t drive for a long range — it’s really independent of charging facilities,” said Koji Makino, a project manager at Toyota. Even if fully electric cars overtake petroleum-powered vehicles in sales, they still need to be plugged in, which means building a network of charging stations across the globe. The sun, on the other hand, shines everywhere for free, and when that energy is paired with enough battery capacity to propel automobiles at night, solar-powered cars could leapfrog all the new-energy technologies being developed, from plug-in hybrids to hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, in one fell swoop.

Energy Voice 13th Sept 2019 read more »

Households are overpaying on their energy bills by £220 a year as the Big Six set tariffs at the price cap limit. Almost 10 million households across the UK have lost more than £2.2billion in savings on their energy bills this year alone, new research has revealed. Customers stuck on standard variable tariffs with Big Six suppliers will pay on average £220 more over the course of the year than they would if they had switched to a cheaper deal, according to energy provider Bulb. Although the energy price cap has recently been lowered by £75 to bring the level to £1,179 a year for customers on default tariffs in an effort to prevent large bill increases, the Big Six are still being accused of using the cap as a target rather than a limit. Eon, EDF, SSE and Npower have all set their SVTs at the cap limit, £1,179, as of October whilst Scottish Power and British Gas have set their prices just marginally below at £1,178 and £1,177, respectively.

This is Money 11th Sept 2019 read more »

FT 12th Sept 2019 read more »

With the political will and clear and consistent policies to encourage take-up, optimism is high for the mass adoption of EVs. However, according to Siemens, doubts linger over insufficient charging points, limitations with respect to connecting charging infrastructure to the power grid and high vehicle prices. Bernard Magee, director Siemens future grid commented: “The decarbonisation of transport will require the major expansion of today’s electric and low emission vehicle infrastructure, but these barriers are not insurmountable. To date approximately 120,000 charge points have been installed in the UK and more are needed, particularly in remote locations. There were also nearly 60,000 new EV and hybrid registrations last year. While the figure represents a relatively small percentage of overall vehicles sales the industry is confident the uptake will continue to drive investment at national and local levels.”

Infrastructure Intelligence 12th Sept 2019 read more »

Plans have been submitted for the first hyper hub in York – featuring solar panels and rapid charging points for electric vehicles. The £1.5m scheme to build two hubs – at Poppleton Bar and Monks Cross Park&Ride sites – were given the go ahead by councillors in April. Under the proposals solar canopies would be installed at both car parks, with the energy they collect used to charge vehicles or stored in batteries.

York Mix 12th Sept 2019 read more »

The UK’s flagship policy for creating a cleaner Britain is in line for “a significant refresh” in order to help meet the government’s new 2050 net zero emission target. The move was revealed yesterday in Parliament, when Liberal Democrat peer Lord Teverson asked if the UK’s new target for net zero emissions by 2050 will require an update to the Clean Growth Strategy, drawn up when the UK’s target was for an 80 per cent emissions cut against 1990 levels by mid-century. In response, recently appointed Climate Minister Lord Duncan acknowledged an updated strategy was “absolutely vital”. “We will need to be bold about taking ourselves forward to net zero by 2050, because our present initiatives are not adequate to deliver that,” he said. “There will need to be a significant refresh not just of the wider Clean Growth Strategy, but of all aspects of this covering all government departments.” Nick Molho, executive director of the Aldersgate Group, said an overhaul of the Clean Growth Strategy should focus on accelerating investment in “no regret areas” such as energy efficiency and low-carbon heat for buildings, electric vehicle uptake and decarbonising the power sector. Trials for using hydrogen to produce low-carbon heat, and applying carbon capture and storage in heavy industry should also be supported, he said.

Business Green 11th Sept 2019 read more »

Plans for a cleaner and healthier Britain stepped up a gear today (10 September 2019), as Ministers announced more than half a billion pounds of investment in green technologies.

Treasury 10th Sept 2019 read more »

The phrase “climate change” has been mentioned over 19,000 times in British parliamentary debates, with Labour politicians using the term more than representatives from any other party. These are among the findings to emerge after Carbon Brief extracted data from over 200 years of records from the UK’s houses of Commons and Lords. The analysis reveals how the climate conversation in British politics has shifted over the years, from discussing the “greenhouse effect” in the late 1980s to more recent debate over the “climate crisis”.

Carbon Brief 11th Sept 2019 read more »