Hinkley
Despite government commitments to nuclear power, the proposed new plant at Hinkley Point is still some way off. This matters as new nuclear plants could have a critical role in providing the UK with low carbon electricity, while maintaining secure supplies. Once complete, the new Hinkley plant alone should provide around 7% of the UK’s electricity. However further delays could pose a threat to the security of the UK’s electricity supplies. So is the country facing a looming “power gap” in the early 2020s? Although individual renewable projects are small in comparison to nuclear power stations, the renewable industry as a whole is showing that it can deliver substantial amounts of capacity at a rate of megawatts-per-year that is starting to put nuclear planning timsecales firmly in the shade. The longer we wait for nuclear, the more the current government’s “mixed messages” about renewables may themselves seem a threat to security of supply. Just as effective could be shifting electricity usage to avoid coinciding with “peak demand”, the point at which the system is under greatest stress. People or organisations who take part in such arrangements should rightly be rewarded, for example with lower electricity tariffs for providing a useful service to the system and helping to reduce overall costs.
The Conversation 29th Sept 2015 read more »
Bradwell
NORTH Essex MP Bernard Jenkin has told protesters he remains opposed to plans for a new nuclear plant at Bradwell. Campaigners say they are preparing for a long fight against a power station opening at Bradwell after the Government approved a £2 billion guarantee to underwrite Chinese financing of the Hinkley Point nuclear power station, in Somerset. The move has paved the way for the “majority Chinese ownership” of a power station at Bradwell. Mr Jenkin, who is the son of the pro-nuclear former Conservative Energy Minister Lord Jenkin, said: “My views on the possibility of a new build at Bradwell have not changed. “There should be no new nuclear at Bradwell, unless the concerns about damage to the estuary and storage of nuclear waste on site can both be unequivocally resolved.
North Essex Gazette 29th Sept 2015 read more »
A CAMPAIGN group fears the Blackwater estuary could be “trashed” if Chinese developers take over the Bradwell nuclear site. Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (Banng) chairman Andy Blowers said: “For the Blackwater estuary, it is extremely bad news. Basically, the estuary will be trashed if this goes ahead.”
Braintree & Witham Times 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Radwaste
With residents in England and Northern Ireland invited to a series of public consultation workshops to be held across the country, the search for a radioactive waste site is taking a step forward. The workshops will run alongside a public consultation seeking views on RWM’s proposed approach to gathering and presenting information on the geology of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A RWM spokesman said: “A GDF will provide a permanent and safer solution to dispose of the UK’s higher activity radioactive waste while it decays, safely away from people and the environment, deep underground.
Cumbria Trust 1st Oct 2015 read more »
Politics
Labour’s new Shadow Energy Secretary Lisa Nandy has pledged to ‘democratise’ the energy system by boosting community-owned renewables across the country. In her speech at the Labour Party annual conference, Nandy said that businesses and consumers were being ‘ripped off’ by the Conservative Party’s plans to support the Hinkley nuclear plant while cutting subsidies for the cheapest renewable technology, onshore wind. Nandy said: “We want to put people back in charge. But Jeremy [Corbyn] and I don’t want to nationalise energy. We want to do something far more radical. We want to democratise it.
Edie 30th Sept 2015 read more »
The Labour Party has criticised “dangerous” foreign investment in the nation’s power supply as it pledged to ensure some energy assets are transferred to public hands if elected in 2020. Lisa Nandy, the new shadow energy and climate change secretary, said that the Conservatives’ energy policy was putting the economic security of the UK at risk, along with household budgets. On the third day of the Labour Party conference, she hinted that George Osborne’s recent invitation for Chinese companies to back the UK’s nuclear plans was placing the country’s economic security in danger. Ms Nandy slammed continued overseas investment in the nuclear sector, saying that the UK would be left “paying over the odds for decades to subsidise Chinese and French companies for a nuclear power station on course to be the most expensive ever built anywhere in the world”. And in a move which is likely to anger investors in the energy industry, the new shadow energy and climate change secretary added that she wanted to ‘democratise’ power supply. “There should be nothing to stop every community in this country owning its own clean power station,” Ms Nandy told the Labour conference in Brighton. She pointed to a project in Nottingham where local Labour councillors have created a city energy company to “cut bills and go green,” as well as highlighting similar public-focused schemes in Oldham and Cardiff.
Telegraph 29th Sept 2015 read more »
Terror
Islamic State monsters are plotting to unleash a nuclear holocaust, killing millions of innocent people in “the largest religious cleansing in history”, an insider has claimed. German journalist Jurgen Todenhofer spent ten chilling days with the terrorists, managing to escape alive.
Daily Record 1st Oct 2015 read more »
Mirror 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Belgium
French gas and power group Engie said on Thursday that it was trimming its 2015 profit outlook by 100 million euros ($111 million) due to the outages at two Belgian power plants. The company said that the outages would knock 40 million euros a month off of net recurring income. As a result, it now expected net recurring income of 2.75-3.05 billion euros instead of 2.85-3.15 billion euros previously.
Reuters 1st Oct 2015 read more »
Trident
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he would not use Britain’s nuclear weapons if he were prime minister. The long-time opponent of nuclear weapons told the BBC he was “totally and morally opposed” to their use, saying the Cold War era is over. Asked if he would ever press the nuclear button, Mr Corbyn said: “No.”
BBC 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Guardian 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Telegraph 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Independent 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Express 1st Oct 2015 read more »
Daily Mail 1st Oct 2015 read more »
Western Daily Press 1st Oct 2015 read more »
Who are the dangerous politicians: those who would incinerate millions of innocent people with a weapon of mass destruction or those who would not? The row over Jeremy Corbyn’s admission he could not press a button to unleash mass slaughter goes to the heart of the debate about nuclear bombs and the plan to spend £100billion on a Son of Trident.
Mirror 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Trident Briefing: The Conservatives say replacing Trident in its current form is the best option. Labour has been in favour too, but new leader Jeremy Corbyn opposes nuclear weapons and the party’s policy is being reviewed.
BBC 30th Sept 2015 read more »
North Korea
NORTH KOREA today directly warned Britain it is “prepared” to launch a nuclear strike – just hours after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn vowed to scrap the country’s nuclear weapons.
Express 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Renewables – tidal
Tidal Lagoon Power chief Mark Shorrock says he is driving the project ‘as if the contract for difference has already happened’ and hopes to start construction by autumn 2016.
Business Green 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
Former BBC presenter Heather “the weather” Reid brought some welcome sunshine to Gylemuir Primary School as she launched a major new solar energy project. Residents are being encouraged to buy shares in a scheme, run by the Edinburgh Community Solar Co-operative, to install solar panels on up to 25 schools, community and leisure centres owned by the council. The project aims to raise £1.4 million, which would make it the UK’s largest community-owned urban renewables scheme.
Edinburgh Evening News 30th Sept 2015 read more »
The UK government has vowed to play a leading role in delivering a “solar revolution” across Africa, arguing the technology has the potential to transform energy access across the continent. Speaking at a meeting with African leaders, investors, and business executives in at the UN in New York yesterday, International Development Minister Grant Shapps said the UK was keen to push the development of Africa’s nascent solar market up the political agenda.
Business Green 30th Sept 2015 read more »
The Scottish Government has confirmed solar PV projects below five megawatts will continue to receive support following the UK Government’s decision to close the Renewables Obligation. The UK Government wants to exclude such projects from the policy that guarantees the same levels of support for the lifetime of the project, known as grandfathering. The Scottish Government has devolved powers over grandfathering policy and has confirmed it will retain support for solar PV projects in Scotland.
Scottish Energy News 1st Oct 2015 read more »
Planning applications for solar farms have soared since the Government announced it was consulting on plans to end subsidy schemes for solar farms that produce 5 megawatts (MW) of power or below.
Scottish Energy News 30th Sept 2015 read more »
The government is to spend less on subsidies for new solar rooftop panels from next year than it has committed to give China to fund a grass-roots football programme, figures show. In the first full-scale cash calculation of the cuts to British solar subsidies, the Solar Trade Association claimed that the support would fall to less than £2 million a year, a 98 per cent cut from the present £70 million.
Times 1st Oct 2015 read more »
Renewables – Hydrogen
A Scottish community energy project is on track to become one of Europe’s largest fleets of hydrogen-powered vehicles after the scheme’s lead partner announced the order of 15 such vehicles. Bright Green Hydrogen has invested in 10 Renault HyKangoo vans. The Levenmouth project – which secured £4 million from the Scottish Government’s Local Energy Fund – aims to position Levenmouth as a global leader in clean energy through developing the Hydrogen Office Project in Methil into a world-class demonstrator of hydrogen applications, generated from renewable sources.
Scottish Energy News 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Freevolt
Free energy from the air. It sounds like a fantasy but that is what the entrepreneur and former science minister Lord Drayson has just unveiled at London’s Royal Institution. He claims that a technology called Freevolt can be the power source for the “internet of things”, allowing low energy devices from wearables to sensors to operate without being plugged in. The technology involves harvesting radio frequency energy from existing wireless and broadcast networks, from 4G to digital television. Lord Drayson says it’s a world first: “It doesn’t require any extra infrastructure, it doesn’t require us to transmit any extra energy, it’s recycling the energy which isn’t being used at the moment.”
BBC 30th Sept 2015 read more »
Energy Efficiency
The UK’s energy system loses over half of its generated power from source to end user at a cost of £9.5 billion a year, making it one of the least efficient grids in Europe. The new findings come amid growing calls for the government to address the UK’s ‘energy productivity’ as a more cost-effective way of tackling the energy trilemma of supply, cost and decarbonisation. Although some energy waste is inevitable, the research – led by the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) – found that £3 billion of energy could be saved if action is taken, which could cut consumer electricity bills by £116 per year. ADE chief executive Tim Rotheray has urged the government to focus on how it can support investment in cutting energy waste, saying the unnecessary impact on consumer bills is a “national embarrassment”. Addressing energy waste would require a fresh approach to power generation, transmission and distribution, and energy efficiency in homes and businesses, according to the report. Recovering heat from power stations could save £2 billion a year alone, but currently only 10 per cent of power plants do so. And in terms of network efficiency the UK lags behind competing European economies including Germany and Denmark. While the UK loses almost 8 per cent of its energy through transmission and distribution Denmark loses just over 7 per cent and Germany loses just 3.9 per cent.
Utility Week 1st Oct 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
One of the arguments around shale gas extraction in the UK has been about whether or not it is compatible with the UK’s aim of preventing catastrophic climate change by limiting emissions from fossil fuels. It’s not as obvious as it may – at first – appear. The person in charge of the UK’s climate and energy policy, Amber Rudd, has said fracking gas is a low carbon source of power – comments that were recently repeated by Labour peer and anti-coal campaigner Bryony Worthington. The suggestion is that because gas is lower carbon than coal it can play a role in tackling climate change.The problem is that shale gas is obviously not lower carbon compared to renewable technologies such as wind and solar or nuclear. And saying fracked gas is low carbon implies it’s a low climate risk, which simply isn’t the case, for several reasons. Fracked gas will be too late;
Energy Desk 30th Sept 2015 read more »
