Hinkley
The announcement that some form of funding structure for Britain’s nuclear new build at Hinkley Point in Somerset has been agreed must be read with care. UK consumers and taxpayers are not allowed to see the whole agreement – that privilege is restricted to the French and Chinese governments and their state-owned enterprises – but it is clear that this week’s statements do not amount to the final deal. Much remains to be negotiated, with the UK at a considerable disadvantage because of its all too evident desperation to complete a deal. Construction cannot seriously begin until the complete financing agreement is in place, and that cannot be signed before all legal challenges have been resolved. Luxembourg has now joined Austria in one challenge; others may arise. Beyond those considerations there is the question of whether construction should start before at least one of the existing projects to construct comparable European Pressurised Reactors at Flamanville in Northern France and Okiluoto in Finland have been successfully completed. That is not now an absolute requirement under the terms of the agreement but it would surely make sense to learn the lessons from two projects that are both billions over budget and y ears behind schedule. The problems in Finland helped to break Areva – once one of the giants of French industry – and the delays at Flamanville have launched a debate in France about whether the nuclear industry can retain the central role in the energy system it has held since the 1970s. Those delays and problems deterred many investors from getting involved at all in Hinkley Point and it is hard to blame them. The question of how we got into this ludicrous position will be the subject of numerous inquiries for many years to come. It is high time that the Public Accounts Committee, the National Audit Office and the various relevant select committees in parliament started that process. Looking back and learning the lessons is one step. But given the importance of continuous energy supply to the whole economy the more immediate requirement is for a viable plan B which ignores optimistic PR claims and puts in place the capacity that is needed before it is too late.
FT 21st Oct 2015 read more »
The nuclear power plant planned for Hinkley Point, Somerset took a giant leap towards happening yesterday, with a deal between the French and Chinese state-owned energy companies finalised and construction set to start in the coming weeks. We have broken down the deal — including the cost to UK consumers, how much EDF and CGN will get in subsidies, how much they’ll get in profits, what the risks are, and what the energy alternatives are. In the latest twist in the tale, EDF’s Flamanville nuclear reactor (which is the same type as Hinkley will be) announced that morning its opening will be delayed by three years.
Energy Desk 22ns Oct 2015 read more »
So. The French and Chinese state owned nuclear power companies have combined in a deal they hope will pave the way for a new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point, Somerset. The announcement envisages the costs coming in at around £18bn, some way below the EU estimate of £24.5bn that had been bandied about which means that Hinkley may not – after all – be the most expensive man made structure on the planet (we don’t know). At least to those who are building it – but what about the consumer? And where will the money go. Here’s a quick primer:
Energy Desk 21st Oct 2015 read more »
EDF Energy has reached an agreement with China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) for a nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point, Somerset. It was confirmed at a news conference by Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The mainly state-owned EDF said the final cost would be £18bn. State-owned CGN will pay £6bn for one third of it. EDF said it might sell another 15% stake in the project, but would maintain a majority holding. The agreement also set up a wider UK partnership to develop new nuclear power stations at Sizewell and Bradwell. While they have reached Strategic Investment Agreements for all three plants, only Hinkley has a target date – it is supposed to start generating in 2025. Steve Hilton, a former policy adviser to David Cameron, told BBC Newsnight the UK should be imposing sanctions on China over issues such as its “vicious political oppression” and its “relentless cyber attacks”, instead of “rolling out the red carpet”. “This is one of the worst national humiliations we’ve seen since we went cap in hand to the IMF in the 1970s,” said Mr Hilton, who left Downing Street in 2012. “The truth is that China is a rogue state just as bad as Russia or Iran, and I just don’t understand why we’re sucking up to them rather than standing up to them as we should be.”
BBC 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Construction of Britain’s first new nuclear plant in a generation will begin “within weeks”, developer EDF has announced, after Chinese investors agreed to fund a third of its £18 billion cost. A deal between the French and Chinese companies, hailed as “historic” by David Cameron, is to be signed in the presence of the Prime Minister and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday afternoon. Hinkley is now expected to start generating in 2025, eight years later than originally planned, and should provide 3.2 gigawatts of power – enough to meet seven per cent of the UK’s electricity needs – for 60 years. Construction will now begin as soon as the final decision is taken, with hundreds of workers expected on site by the end of the year, EDF said.
Telegraph 21st Oct 2015 read more »
An £18 billion project bankrolled by the governments of China and France to build Britain’s first new nuclear power station in a generation is set to commence “within weeks”, EDF said today. Hundreds of workers could be starting work on the construction of two new reactors at the site at Hinkley Point in Somerset by the end of the year, said Jean-Bernard Levy, chairman of EDF. The new Hinkley station, which could start generating electricity in 2025, will generate 7 per cent of UK electricity – or enough to supply 6 million homes with low carbon power. The Bradwell B reactor, to be built using China’s Hualong 1,000 megawatt reactor technology, will be developed by a joint venture company two thirds controlled by CGN and one third by EDF.
Times 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace, was scathing: “With this deal George Osborne is not so much backing the wrong horse as betting billions of consumers’ money on a nag running backwards. There’s no end in sight for the nuclear industry’s dependence on billion-pound handouts whilst the renewable sector is on the verge of going subsidy free.”
Guardian 21st Oct 2015 read more »
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) notes with dismay the announcement to sign an initial participation agreement between the Chinese and UK Governments and EDF over the proposed construction of a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, and future plans for new nuclear reactors at Sizewell and Bradwell. However, it is clear that this is still not a final investment decision and many significant hurdles still remain. They include: Flawed steel-works has been identified on the reactor pressure vessel and lid of an identical nuclear reactor being built in Flamanville, France. The French nuclear regulator has suspended all work on the reactor. This could take 12 – 24 months to resolve and no work could start at Hinkley Point until these safety issues are resolved in France. Due to severe financial difficulties and huge levels of debt, the French Government has commenced a restructuring of EDF and Areva NP into a merged company. This will also take some considerable time to achieve, and is a major reason Chinese investment was so desperately required to realise UK new nuclear build. A legal challenge to the European Commission by the Austrian and Luxembourg Governments, and a group of Austrian and German renewable energy companies, over its approval of the UK – EDF state aid deal for Hinkley Point will take at least a year or more to resolve. If the courts find against the Commission the whole financing deal will be placed in jeopardy. A reliability clause is likely within the contract. This will be linked in to the prior successful EPR operation being constructed at Flamanville-3 in France. This nuclear reactor project is now years behind schedule and billions over budget in being realised. Today EDF has asked for a formal three year delay in this project, being it will not be completed until at least 2020, 13 years after construction began.
NFLA 21st Oct 2015 read more »
EDF and China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) are today signing a Strategic Investment Agreement for the construction and operation of the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset. The signings are due to take place in the presence of the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, and the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in London.
EDF 21st Oct 2015 read more »
The UK’s plan to get China to build and finance new nuclear power stations is based on a wish and a prayer, writes Oliver Tickell. There is no reactor design, including new Chinese ones, that we can depend on to fill our impending power generation gap. This time, the last one out won’t even have to turn out the lights. For all the bluster, China’s nuclear build programme is in a highly uncertain state. For example The Ecologist has learnt from an industry insider that work on its two power stations at Taishan in Guangdong province came to a grinding halt in mid-2014 and the sites remain deserted. Currently there is not a single working EPR nuclear plant anywhere. Those under construction at Olkiluoto in Finland and Flamanville in France are both running hugely over time and budget. Oliluoto is now nine years late and three times over budget, as Carbon Brief reports. The Flamanville reactor is doing no better. Ordered in 2006 for a price of €3.3 billion, it was meant to be generating power in 2012. According to an EDF statement in early September, it is scheduled for completion in the 4th quarter of 2018 and costs are assessed at €10.5 billion. But Agence France Presse revealed yesterday that EDF has requested to delay completion until 2020 – a full eight years late. In fact there are severe doubts as to whether it will ever be completed at all as the reactor’s pressure vessel – supplied by French parastatal Areva – that lies at its heart has been found to suffer from grave metallurgical flaws, with the steel made brittle by localised excesses of carbon, leading to the possibility of cracks and, ultimately, catastrophic failure. Meanwhile uncertainty looms over China’s ‘great nuclear hope’, its CAP1400 design – one of the two designs it may employ at Bradwell and Sizewell in the UK.
Ecologist 21st Oct 2015 read more »
A highlight of Chancellor George Osborne’s visit to China was the announcement of £2bn of Chinese investment for a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. But critics point to progress at other EDF projects, and doubt the Somerset scheme can be built on time and on budget. In a personal film, the chairman of environmental think tank E3G Tom Burke claims it would be “a very bad deal for Britain” – for both the environment and taxpayers – describing it as an “expensive folly”.
BBC 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Today’s announcement will be a huge step in the right direction for what is expected to be Europe’s largest infrastructure project.
Central Somerset Gazette 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Hinkley Protestors set up camp.
This is the West Country 20th Oct 2015 read more »
MEP slams environmentally illiterate Government ahead of Hinkley deal. Opposition has come not just from those the Government would dismiss as the usual suspects – environmentalists and anti-nuclear protestors – but also from the likes of Bloomberg and energy analysts who realise that building the world’s most expensive energy plant makes no economic sense. “This government cannot be trusted to keep the lights on any more than the Chinese Communist Party can be trusted to safely and securely look after our energy infrastructure.”
Western Morning News 20th Oct 2015 read more »
Britain’s first nuclear power station in a generation will have ‘hundreds of workers’ on site ‘by Christmas’, EDF promised yesterday. The French group struck a deal with the Chinese government over three UK plants as president Xi Jinping was in London for a state visit and now says it is only ‘weeks away’ from ramping up work at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Activity had been put on hold and the Chinese deal was the penultimate hurdle for EDF.
Daily Mail 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Chinese Deal
The long-anticipated four-page nuclear “Statement of Co-operation” moves the Somerset plan for Hinkley Point C a step closer, and with it Sizewell C and a new power station in Bradwell. But it is non-binding and has no legal status. There are still final decisions to be made by EDF in Somerset and Amber Rudd, the energy secretary, will only confirm the price the Government will guarantee for nuclear energy when a full investment decision is signed. At £18bn, it is hard work finding the cash to build new nuclear power stations.
Ipswich Star 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
The former director of strategy for David Cameron has hit out at the Prime Minister’s welcome for visiting Chinese president Xi Jinping, calling it “one of the worst national humiliations” since Britain begged for money from the International Monetary Fund in the 1970s. In an interview on BBC Newsnight on Tuesday, Steve Hilton slammed the banquets and processions being held for China’s leader on his state visit, saying the country was a “rogue state” and that he didn’t understand “why we are sucking up to them”. He said we should impose sanctions on China, rather than “rolling out the red carpet”. “Honestly, I think this is one of the worst national humiliations we’ve seen since we went cap-in-hand to the IMF in the 1970s,” Hilton said. He argued that trying to do £30 billion in trade and investment deals with China was not worth the compromises the UK would have to make over human rights and cyberspying, and ultimately “bad economics”. “Forget about the terrible things that the Chinese regime is doing at home, the vicious political oppression and the violent physical abuse of women,” he told Newsnight host Evan Davis. “Just look at what they are doing internationally: militarily threatening their neighbours, empire building in Africa, and on a daily business stealing property from businesses and governments all around the world trough their relentless cyber attacks. I mean the truth is that China is a rogue state, just as bad as Russia or Iran, and I just don’t understand why we are sucking up to them, rather than standing up to them as we should be.”
Huffington Post 21st Oct 2015 read more »
David Cameron today signed a deal with the Chinese President to build the Hinkley nuclear power station. Jeremy Leggett says the deal is national scandal. Hinkley would be the most expensive power station in the world, costing a minimum of £24.5 billion project. Its power would almost certainly not be needed by the time it eventually comes on stream, a minimum of eight years from now. The Chancellor plans to sign a deal to build Hinkley, even though he knows Austria and Luxembourg have launched a legal challenge, claiming UK subsidies violate EU law. They are checking “serious flaws” in the steel housing at the Flamanville reactor, the fore-runner of the reactor intended for Hinkley Point.
Mirror 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Polly Toynbee: The decision to allow China to build nuclear power stations in the UK is sheer folly, especially at a time when Cameron is shutting the door on renewable energy. On the one hand, the government needs four new Trident subs to protect us from unknown – Chinese? – future nuclear foes in a dangerous world. But on the other hand Cameron and Osborne are nonchalant about the blatant risk of the Chinese planting undetectable devices that could, say, blow up the plants, with which to blackmail us if they chose. Peter Mandelson blithely says that if ever the Chinese used that leverage they would forfeit their world investments – but we are talking about a hypothetical war footing. If that’s too outlandish to worry about, what’s the point of Trident? Cameron can do one or other of these nuclear programmes, but logically not both. Visit Black Ditch, the site just near Hinkley Point where the government turned down an application for wind turbines, as they do all wind applications. It’s a scrappy bit of ex-industrial land beside a motorway, under Hinkley Point’s pylons. Let that stand as a symbol for the folly of the vast and risky nuclear plan, displacing wiser green investments.
Guardian 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Day two of President Xi Jinping’s visit to the UK will see the announcement of a host of business deals, including investment by China’s state nuclear power companies in two new plants built by French company EDF at Hinkley point in Somerset. The deal is reported to amount to £8billion a plant. The announcement has already been clouded by an Energydesk analysis which found that the Hinkley deal would see UK households spend £33 a year in nuclear subsidies after 2025 – a subsidy amounting to £2.6bn a year. Carbon Brief carries a cautionary tale for Britain’s nuclear industry this morning, with a lengthy feature on the Olkiluoto 3 project in Finland.
Energy Desk 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Greenpeace said a multi-billion-pound subsidy deal to build a new fleet of three nuclear reactors at Hinkley, Sizewell, and Bradwell will add an estimated £33 a year to the average UK household bill for more than 30 years. Barbara Stoll, Greenpeace UK energy campaigner, said: “It appears that there is one rule for renewables and one rule for nuclear. The Energy Minister was clear that the subsidies for the nuclear industry can last for 30 years, yet she’s expecting the solar sector to be subsidy free almost immediately. This is despite thousands of jobs and millions in investment being at risk. With the right support, renewables can help keep the lights on at a viable cost and without requiring controversial deals with foreign state-owned energy giants.” Friends of the Earth chief executive Craig Bennett said: “George Osborne’s desperation to get Chinese investment at almost any cost means a shockingly bad deal for Britain. “Even with eye-wateringly huge cash subsidies, many experts believe a new reactor at Hinkley will never be built. While the nuclear industry is being lavishly wined and dined by David Cameron, the UK renewable industry has been left to survive on crumbs, threatening tens of thousands of jobs. The Government’s energy strategy is a complete mess. Ministers are pulling the plug on UK wind and solar just as these new power sources are on the cusp of delivering the clean and affordable energy we need. The Government must end its love affair with nuclear power and fossil fuels, and build a clean energy system fit for the challenges of the 21st century.”
Business Reporter 21st Oct 2015 read more »
China’s leading nuclear supplier has set out ambitions to build a series of new reactors in Britain, saying it wants to use a multibillion-pound deal on Hinkley Point to open the door to investment in other countries. State-owned nuclear group CGN will take a 33.5 per cent stake in the first of three such power stations in the UK under an agreement with France’s EDF. It will provide £6bn of funding for the £18bn Hinkley project in Somerset, to be led by the French energy group. Construction work on the site will begin within weeks, with hundreds of workers expected to return once a final investment decision – seen as a formality – is taken. EDF said it intended to bring other investors into the project “in due course”, but would not reduce its stake in Hinkley below 50 per cent. The strategic accord between EDF and CGN, signed in the presence of China’s president Xi Jinping and UK prime minister David Cameron, also hands the Chinese group a lead role in the design and construction of a future plant at Bradwell, in Essex, in which it will have a 66.5 per cent interest, and a minority stake in another new power station at Sizewell, in Suffolk. Zheng Dongshan, senior vice-president at CGN, told the Financial Times it would apply next year to UK regulators for approval of its so-called Hualong HPR1000 design, a process that could take up to four years.
FT 21st Oct 2015 read more »
To diminish British sovereignty by allowing state-owned companies from authoritarian states to invest in key sectors of our national economy is wrong, Lord Wallace of Saltaire argues.
Times 21st Oct 2015 read more »
How can we explain how an industry moribund for nearly a quarter of a century can be resurrected from the dead like Freddy Krueger in the cult horror film series Nightmare on Elm Street? Is there some kind of hidden driver that sees the hyper pro-market chancellor George Osborne elbow aside his energy secretary Amber Rudd, to take over the nuclear deal with Beijing.
David Lowry’s Blog 20th Oct 2015 read more »
Cybersecurity
By far the most worrying aspect of the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant is the risk to national security, with cybersecurity experts warning Beijing could use the deal to threaten the UK’s critical infrastructure and endanger its physical safety. One of the most significant threats, according to Justin Harvey, chief security officer at Fidelis Cybersecurity, is that of so-called logic-bombs. “The US has been seeing Chinese state sponsored attackers leaving behind ‘trapdoors’ for years, but in recent times, it has also been leaving behind something much more sinister: logic-bombs,” he told IBTimes UK. “The theory is that these logic-bombs are being left behind so that in the event of a military strike, China would have the capability to render it’s foes incapacitated.”
IB Times 21st Oct 2015 read more »
David Cameron hailed a promise from Beijing to stop stealing Britain’s economic secrets yesterday, as he signed a nuclear deal with a Chinese firm linked to cyber-espionage. The prime minister waved aside security fears and objections over China’s human rights record to welcome the £6 billion investment that could lead to construction of Britain’s first new nuclear power station in a generation starting within weeks at Hinkley Point, Somerset. The deal is the centrepiece of the four-day state visit of President Xi. He will attend a summit at Chequers today to discuss global affairs, including Syria and Hong Kong, and leaves tomorrow. In a tightly controlled Downing Street press conference yesterday, Mr Cameron listed the first fruits of his Beijing charm offensive, including a new “agreement on cyber-enabled comm ercial espionage”. Mr Cameron’s official spokeswoman said both sides had agreed not “to conduct or support the cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, trade secrets or confidential business information”. Downing Street insisted that the agreement, which mirrors a similar deal struck between China and the US last month, was not motivated by fears that growing nuclear co-operation could compromise national security. However, one of three firms named last year in a US investigation into cyber-espionage has signed a tie-up with Rolls-Royce to co-operate on civil nuclear power projects. The US said that SNPTC benefited from trade secrets stolen in hacks by the Chinese military. China agreed to clamp down on industrial cyberspying in the face of Washington threats to sanction companies caught spying.
Times 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Bradwell
China could be allowed to start building its own nuclear reactor in Essex as soon as 2022, in return for providing £6 billion funding for Britain’s first new nuclear plant to go ahead at Hinkley Point in Somerset. In a deal hailed as “historic” by David Cameron, Chinese state nuclear company CGN took a one-third stake in the £18 billion Hinkley project led by French state energy giant EDF, which said it now expected to begin construction within weeks. EDF announced it would also help CGN seek approval from UK safety regulators for its own Hualong reactor design, never before used in the West, in a process that is expected to begin next year and take three to four years. If successful, CGN would then apply for planning permission to build the reactor at Bradwell in Essex and seek a subsidy contract from the Government, potentially enabling it to start construction in 2022 or 2023, Vincent de Rivaz, EDF Energy chief executive said.
Telegraph 21st Oct 2015 read more »
NORTH Essex MP Bernard Jenkin has told protesters he remains opposed to a new nuclear plant at Bradwell. Groups fighting against plans for the potential new Chinese-run power station have upped their campaign as the Chinese president visited the UK. President Xi Jinping was due to visit Britain this week for talks over a potential £2billion deal for Hinkley Point station, in Somerset, paving the way for a new nuclear plant at Bradwell. Mr Jenkin, who is the son of the pro-nuclear former Conservative Energy Minister Lord Jenkin, said: ““This is a rotten site because of the risk to the estuary. “It is a high damage risk and the plans are unacceptable. “One of the problems we have is land subsidence and the imminent rise in sea level we are already experiencing. “We are already protected by the sea wall so how long is this a viable site? “I would like to see the government do a full investigation and reach the conclusion that this is not a viable site.
Braintree & Witham Times 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
The creation of a new nuclear reactor site in Bradwell could drive forward a period of regeneration in the area. That is the view of both Essex County and Maldon District councils which feel the closure of the former power station there had a negative effect on the region. But campaigners against the proposals for Bradwell B say the whole scheme is a vanity project. In a statement released jointly by ECC and MDC the councils hailed the deal which could “potentially bring significant economic benefits to the people of Essex”. Andy Blowers, chairman of the Bradwell Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG), said while the news was disappointing it did not mean the campaign against a new power station in the area was over. “There are very good reasons for feeling the Bradwell project will sink in the sand eventually,” he said. “I think it’s a vanity project. “It’s a step in the wrong direction but it’s a step, it’s not the end.”
Ipswich Star 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
The Chancellor George Osborne has signed a multi-billion pound deal with China which will see two nuclear plants built in our region. They will part fund a new reactor at Sizewell C in Suffolk and planning will also start on a Chinese-designed reactor at Bradwell in Essex. Critics say it is a dangerous deal that threatens national security and has ecological implications. But those in favour say it will be a huge boost for our region.
ITV 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Wylfa/Oldbury
Horizon Nuclear Power has welcomed the announcement from state-owned French generator EDF that it has completed a financial and commercial agreement that will see a final investment decision on their nuclear new build project at Hinkley Point C by the end of the year. Alan Raymant, Chief Operating Officer of Horizon, said: “This marks a major step forward for nuclear new-build in the UK and we look forward to seeing EDF progress their important project at Hinkley.
Scottish Energy News 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
The historic signing of a deal between China and Gloucestershire-based EDF to fund the next generation of nuclear power plants has been welcomed by the head of the county’s local enterprise partnership.
Gloucestershire Echo 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Radhealth
Is protracted exposure to low doses of ionising radiation associated with an increased risk of solid cancer? Results suggest a linear increase in the rate of cancer with increasing radiation exposure.
BMJ 20th Oct 2015 read more »
Plutonium
China’s disarmament ambassador blasted Japan on Tuesday for its growing stockpile of nuclear fissile materials, expressing concern they could be used to make nuclear weapons and that there are “political forces” in the country pressing for nuclear armament
Kyodo 20th Oct 2015 read more »
Flamanville
French energy group EDF has formally asked the government for a three-year delay until 2020 to the deadline for launching its next-generation EPR nuclear reactor, according to a copy of the request seen by AFP Tuesday. EDF had been set a 2017 deadline for switching on the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), a third-generation reactor design considered the most advanced and safest in the world, when it began building it in Flamanville, northwest France, in 2007. But the project has been beset by technical delays leading to cost overruns.
AFP 20th Oct 2015 read more »
Energy Desk 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
Low-carbon electricity, not gas, is the cheapest way to keep lights on and meet carbon targets, says the government’s climate advisory panel. The Committee on Climate Change says onshore wind and solar are already price-competitive if you factor in the cost imposed on society by carbon emissions from gas. Ministers have recently imposed major cuts on renewables. But the committee says wind and solar offer value for money. The committee has pleaded for an end to the current turmoil over energy policy since the Treasury slashed subsidy for renewables because the budget was overspent.
BBC 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Guardian 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Scottish Energy News 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
The cost to households of subsidising wind and solar farms and other low-carbon power will more than double to £105 a year by 2020 and could reach £140 by 2030, according to the Committee on Climate Change. The total subsidy for green electricity is likely to rise from £4 billion last year to £9 billion in 2025 and could reach £12 billion in 2028 if gas prices remain low, the government advisory board said. Households pay an average of £45 a year in their electricity bill to subsidise low-carbon power, the committee said. The cost will rise over the next decade as offshore wind farms are built to help meet Britain’s legally binding target of halving its 1990 level of carbon dioxide emissions by 2025. The committee said that onshore wind farms and solar farms were likely to be “cost competitive” with gas-fired power stations by the 2020s, meaning that new projects would not require subsidy. However, the government has withdrawn or cut subsidies for these forms of energy. The committee said that offshore wind farms and systems to capture carbon from fossil fuel power stations would need a subsidy during the 2020s. It called on the government to commit to increasing total green subsidies up to 2025 and said that giving businesses confidence to invest in renewable energy would save money by reducing the cost of meeting targets.
Times 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
China
Grid connection of Yangjiang Unit 3, located at Dongping Town, Yangjiang City in western Guangdong Province, took place on 18 October 2015, according to plant owner China General Nuclear Power Corp. (CGN). Construction start of Unit 3 began on 15 November 2010, and commercial operation is scheduled for later this year. Yangjiang Unit 2 was connected to the grid in March 2015. In total, six units are slated to be built at the site, Yangjiang Units 1-4 are of the CPR-1000 design, while Units 5 and 6 are ACPR-1000s. Safety issues with the CPR-1000 design have been raised in recent years, including descriptions of it being obsolete, as it is based on a modified version of the Framatome 900 MW reactors, which were built in France between 1971 and 1987. Earlier this year a senior member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences warned in relation to lessons being applied following the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident, that, “There were internal discussions on upgrading standards in the past four years, but doing so would require a lot more investment which would affect the competitiveness and profitability of nuclear power… Nuclear energy costs are cheap because we lower our standards.”
World Nuclear Industry Safety Report 21st Oct 2015 read more »
South Korea
Five Greenpeace activists last week entered the security zone of what will soon be the world’s biggest nuclear power plant – the Kori nuclear power plant (NPP) near Busan in South Korea. Arriving via a black inflatable boat, they climbed out and scampered up a rocky slope unfurling a bright yellow banner in front of the fence of the Kori NPP. For 40 minutes they stood ground as guards looked on, sirens blazed, and warnings from the coast guard were broadcast over the loudspeaker.
Greenpeace 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Trident
British industry has been warned the country’s national security will be at risk if work on the planned new generation of nuclear submarines goes over budget or hits construction delays. Firing a shot across the bows of the country’s arms manufacturers and companies in their supply chains, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon highlighted the dangers of “failing to deliver” on the nuclear Successor class submarines for the Royal Navy, which will replace the existing fleet of Vanguard class boats.
Telegraph 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Renewables
Apple and its biggest supplier Foxconn are together pledging to build solar power plants to produce more than 600 megawatts of electricity, in a big step towards making the Chinese factories that produce the iPhone run entirely on clean energy. As part of a new Apple initiative, Taiwan-based Foxconn – the world’s largest contract manufacturer – has committed to building solar capacity of 400 megawatts in China’s Henan Province by 2018.
FT 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Green electricity generator Ecotricity has announced plans to build three new ‘dual fuel’ renewable energy parks. Hybrid ‘dual fuel’ renewable energy parks combine wind and sun generation in the same project, in the same place, using the same grid connection
Scottish Energy News 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Renewables – marine
Scottish expertise is to be used to help develop wave and tidal power in China. The Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) and the University of Edinburgh have signed a memorandum of understanding with organisations based in the Qingdao area. The move will support the development of a marine energy test site in China. Emec has operated open-sea test facilities for wave and tidal energy converters since 2003. There has been increasing interest from east Asia in developing marine power, with delegations from Japan and Indonesia visiting Orkney in recent months.
BBC 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Herald 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Scottish Energy News 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Michael Meacher
Veteran Labour MP and former minister Michael Meacher has died after a short illness at the age of 75. Mr Meacher had been MP for Oldham West and Royton since 1970, retaining the seat with a 14,738 majority in May. Mr Meacher, seen as being on the left of the party, spent 29 years on Labour’s frontbench including six as an environment minister under Tony Blair.
BBC 21st Oct 2015 read more »
Attending a Friends of the Earth conference as a FoE activist many years ago I was impressed by Michael Meacher’s frankness regarding his involvement as Environment Minister in the sanctioning of activities at Sellafield, he implied that he was effectively held to ransom and did not want to agree to it. At the same Friends of the Earth conference (must have been around 2003) He made a very strong statement regarding the commissioning of any new nuclear power, saying: “We need new nuclear like we need a hole in the head”
Radiation Free Lakeland 21st Oct 2015 read more »
