New Nukes
Sir John Armitt has 47 years in the construction industry have included high-profile road and rail schemes and chairing the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the body that built the 2012 Games’ venues.This week he is expected to bring that experience to bear with a long-awaited report for Labour on what Britain should do about breaking the infrastructure deadlock. Armitt is clear: politics must be taken out of the process. Delivering big projects successfully needs consensus, just as it did for the Olympics. Muddling along is no longer an option in planning and executing key projects such as HS2 or new nuclear power stations. Armitt said plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in this country are an opportunity for Britain to become a world leader in the sector. “Ten new power stations would create a continuity of knowledge and that’s something we would be able to sell overseas,” he said.
Sunday Times 25th Aug 2013 read more »
Energy Policy
It is easy to sympathise with the Balcombe protesters. But the hard reality is that local shale fuels, if they can be extracted safely, are better for the environment than imported ones. And some campaigners are leaving the country little option when they say no to shale gas, no to biomass and no to nuclear. If there is a body of opinion that states that wind farms and energy efficiency can fill the looming energy gap, then it is small and deeply unrepresentative. Certainly, if we are to meet the energy challenge of a secure, low carbon and affordable power system, the whole country needs to accept that it needs to do things differently. The Balcombe protesters, politicians and the energy industry will have to find an awkward consensus.The battle for Balcombe is a distraction. It allows politicians and businesspeople who want to ditch the green agenda to depict environmentalists as mindless nihilists opposed to modernisation of Britain’s energy infrastructure.
Observer 25th Aug 2013 read more »
Heysham
Heysham 1 Power Station has shut down both of its nuclear reactors after an electrical fault in a gas turbine generator. Firefighters were called to the plant at around 10.30pm on last night (Thursday) after a sprinkler system was set off. A Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said there was “an activation of a fire protection system”, which site operatives identified was caused by an electrical fault.
The Visitor 23rd Aug 2013 read more »
Utilities
The British Gas owner is part of the way through the programme that it launched in February after abandoning plans to invest in new nuclear plants in the UK. It has enough cash to fund a similar programme again next year as investment in other UK power projects stalls and the assets it buys in North America generate earnings. Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw told The Sunday Telegraph that it could opt to extend the programme next year. “We have got the headroom but we haven’t made any firm decisions,” he said. Handing more cash to shareholders would be politically contentious at a time when British Gas customers face rising bills. The company pledged in May to hold prices for “as long as possible” after the cold weather drove up gas usage and revenues at the start of the year.
Telegraph 24th Aug 2013 read more »
Japan
For the first time since Japan’s nuclear catastrophe erupted two and half years ago at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) requested international aid in an increasing desperate fight to bring the worsening disaster under control.
Beyond Nuclear 22nd Aug 2013 read more »
Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear explains what the increase severity at Fukushima really means for the planet.
Beyond Nuclear 21st Aug 2013 read more »
Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Saturday it would empty two more coolant tanks that hold radioactive water over fears of fresh leaks at the crippled nuclear plant. Last week, TEPCO said around 300 tons of radioactive liquid was believed to have escaped from one of the hundreds of tanks used to cool the broken reactors.
Japan Today 25th Aug 2013 read more »
Japan’s National Regulation Authority tours the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, inspecting its storage tanks, citing failed inspections by the Tokyo Electric Power Company.
Reuters 24th Aug 2013 read more »
The prime minister of energy-poor Japan heads to the oil-rich Middle East this weekend in his latest push to promote nuclear technology exports, a spokesman said Friday, despite growing problems at the crippled Fukushima plant.
Middle East Online 23rd Aug 2013 read more »
Renewables
Data released by one of the largest green energy companies shows wind farms producing enough electricity only to boil two to three kettles at a time. At one stage last week, three big wind farms even took electricity out of the National Grid – to run basic power supplies on site – rather than actually supplying electricity to households. The wind farms’ owner said that in still conditions electricty “import” can occur for a few hours until the wind picks up. Such a phenomenon is known in the industry as “parasitic consumption”.
Telegraph 24th Aug 2013 read more »
Marine energy could have the potential to boost the Welsh economy by up to £840m according to a new report commissioned by the Welsh Government. The study, carried out by Regeneris Consulting and the Welsh Economy Research Unit at Cardiff Business School, examined the economic benefits for Wales from developing the sector, using three different scenarios. In the first scenario Wales sees the development of a 30MW (megawatts) wave power device and a 30MW tidal stream device. The second scenario sees the installation of two 30MW wave devices and eight 30MW tidal stream devices, reflecting the more advanced state of the tidal technology. The final scenario sees a total of 1GW (gigawatts) of marine energy capacity being developed, with one quarter being wave energy devices and three quarters tidal. Economy Minister Edwina Hart said: “The Welsh Government is committed to capturing the marine resource in Wales and maximising the benefits from the development of the industry. “We want to ensure Wales is at the forefront of the low carbon energy agenda and the role that marine energy can play is highlighted in the Welsh Government’s Energy Wales: a low carbon transition strategy. “We are committed to unlocking the energy in our seas and this report illustrates the real benefits it could deliver across the Welsh economy as well as some of the challenges.”
Wales Online 23rd Aug 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Scotland’s energy minister is to be questioned as a matter of urgency over highly controversial plans to set fire to subsea coal seams off Fife. Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Claire Baker is pressing for a meeting with Fergus Ewing to discuss the Scottish Government’s role if the proposals for Largo Bay and Kincardine go ahead. She has expressed grave concerns about the process known as underground coal gasification (UCG), which she fears will pollute mine water. Her comments echo those of Levenmouth councillor Tom Adams, who said the Firth of Forth would be used as a test site for the technique, which involves drilling a 12-inch vertical borehole into a coal seam below the sea bed.
Dundee Courier 21st Aug 2013 read more »
Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats have poured scorn on George Osborne’s push for a shale gas revolution in the UK, saying the process of fracking has caused extensive environmental damage and water pollution in the US. The comments, in official policy papers, come as a new Opinium/Observer poll shows strong public opposition to fracking, with resistance particularly strong among women. Asked if they would like to see various alternative types of energy projects in their area, 60% of people said they would be happy to have windfarms or turbines. By contrast, only 23% are happy for fracking to take place in their area. While views were split fairly evenly among men, with 38% against fracking and 32% in favour, among women the proportion was 51% against and 15% in favour. The papers to the Lib Dems’ annual conference in Glasgow next month expose again the gulf between the two coalition parties over drilling for shale gas, with the Lib Dems insisting there will never be a “shale gas revolution” in this country.
Observer 25th Aug 2013 read more »
Christopher Booker: All media eyes were last week focused on that infantile little ruckus over fracking in the Sussex village of Balcombe. But virtually unnoticed recently was a very odd and much more significant event in the fracking drama, which shed further disturbing light on the curious workings of that system of government which now rules our lives much more than most people realise. At a meeting of the EU’s Council of Ministers in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, a special “informal” lunch was given for 28 environment ministers, including our own Owen Paterson, to discuss what should be the EU’s policy on fracking. The green lobby is going into overdrive to ensure that Europe and Britain must at all costs be prevented from copying America’s miraculous success story. And by far their best hope of doing this is by persuading the EU to pass laws which would make fracking in Europe virtually impossible.
Telegraph 24th Aug 2013 read more »
