Hinkley
Deal between EDF and government for £10bn nuclear power station could come as early as next week. A deal between the government and French utility firm EDF giving the go-ahead to the construction of the £10bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is expected as early as next week, according to separate sources close to the negotiations. This comes despite public comments this month by EDF chief executive Henri Proglio casting doubt on the timescale for a deal, and last week’s revelation that a redundancy consultation has been started with site workers. Sources say the parties aim to reach an agreement in “early May”, with a deal possible next week. The government and EDF have been at loggerheads since last year over the price the government will guarantee EDF receives for power generated by Hinkley, known as the “strike price”. However it is understood a strike price of between £95-£99/MWh has now been accepted by the government, guaranteed for 35 years, although one source said it was still to be resolved whether some or all of this price will be subject to inflation.
Building 3rd May 2013 read more »
The U.K. and Electricite de France SA are making progress on a deal that would guarantee a power price for new nuclear reactors, said a local government official who reported no indication the talks are failing. David Hall, deputy leader for Somerset County Council, attends strategy meetings with officials from French utility EDF and the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change discussing EDF’s proposal for two new reactors at Hinkley Point in Southern England and said the talks seem to be on track. “The main message we’re receiving from all sides is,‘Don’t panic’,” Hall said. “This is a very complex and important negotiation because it potentially fixes electricity prices a long way into the future. That’s going to be a challenging negotiation.”
Bloomberg 3rd May 2013 read more »
DECC
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is understood to have been hit by the second resignation of a senior civil servant in as many weeks, after reports emerged that head of strategy Ravi Gurumurthy is to leave the department. Labour’s climate change envoy Barry Gardiner, who issued a statement on Gurumurthy’s departure, said the latest resignations were evidence of a “crisis at DECC”. “In the middle of a huge rewriting of the Energy Bill before it returns to the Commons in a few weeks DECC has lost two of the most significant contributors to the bill,” he said in a statement. “In one month the Energy Minister has been sacked and replaced with a part-time minister and two senior civil servants have resigned. The Secretary of State must act to restore confidence in his department.”
Business Green 3rd May 2013 read more »
The essential overhaul of Britain’s energy system has been thrown into disarray by the resignation of one of its architects – just as Energy Secretary Ed Davey prepares to escalate his drive to stamp out doubts about the existence of climate change. Ravi Gurumurthy, a key adviser on the Government’s much-vaunted Energy Bill in his role as head of strategy at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), is the latest top-level civil servant to resign. He is understood to be following his former boss David Miliband to the International Rescue Committee in New York.
Independent 3rd May 2013 read more »
Radwaste
The outgoing leader of Cumbria County Council is standing by a decision not to continue with the process to site a nuclear dump in the county. Speaking on the eve of yesterday’s election, Eddie Martin said that members of the cabinet had come to the right conclusion for the county and admitted it was his toughest time during his three years as leader. The shock cabinet decision not to continue onto the next stage of the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) process in January thrust west Cumbria into the national spotlight. Mr Martin said: “My most difficult time, intellectually as well as physically, was the months and months and months of research I put into the nuclear question.
Carlisle News & Star 3rd May 2013 read more »
Heysham
A nuclear reactor has been shut down after smoke was seen coming from a plant in Lancashire. The reactor at Heysham One nuclear power station was shut down at 18:00 BST on Thursday due to smouldering lagging on a turbine. EDF, which operates the reactor, said it was shut down as a precaution. Ian Stewart, station director, said: “Although this is a very minor incident we will be looking into the cause and ensuring that we learn any lessons.” EDF said the smoke was dealt with using a dry powder extinguisher. Lancashire Fire Service attended but was not needed.
BBC 3rd May 2013 read more »
Lancaster Guardian 3rd May 2013 read more »
Isle of Man Today 3rd May 2013 read more »
EDF Energy, Britain’s largest nuclear power producer, shut down its 610-megawatt Heysham 1-2 nuclear reactor on Thursday evening in an unplanned outage, the company said.
Reuters 3rd May 2013 read more »
London South East 3rd May 2013 read more »
Springfields
Owners of the Springfields nuclear plant near Preston insist the site will still be in safe hands despite a switch to private unarmed security guards. Gun-toting police are finally being withdrawn after decades of protecting the former British Nuclear Fuels facility at Salwick. But bosses at Westinghouse, which now runs the plant, are confident security will still be “robust” in the hands of private company the Mitie Group.
Lancashire Evening Post 3rd May 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Thousands of British Gas customers who signed up for one of its fixed-price tariffs two years ago have, in effect, been overpaying for their gas and electricity since then, it has been claimed. In some cases they have paid £800 more than if they had taken a rival deal.
Guardian 4th May 2013 read more »
World Reactors
Rapid development in the field of nuclear energy is expected in 2013 as nations eagerly look towards building or restarting nuclear reactors. The industry, which witnessed a slowdown due to the Fukushima disaster, is expected to recover and develop quickly as several reactors are expected to come online or begin construction in 2013. In addition to the upcoming reactors, the industry is expected to benefit from numerous activities and agreements scheduled to take place in 2013. Countries such as Japan, Chile and Lithuania are expected to decide the future of nuclear power in their energy mix while countries such as the US and India are investing heavily in new reactor technologies or uranium production to support the development of nuclear power.
UK PR Wire 26th April 2013 read more »
The confirmation that Turkey is to proceed with its nuclear power programme has been highlighted by an analyst as evidence that uranium prices could begin to recover from their long depression.
What Invetment 3rd May 2013 read more »
Japan
Fukushima Crisis update 30th April to 2nd May. TEPCO continues to struggle with a worsening situation at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant, as ground water enters reactor buildings at 75 gallons per minute, and then becomes highly contaminated.
Greenpeace 3rd May 2013 read more »
Turkey
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (7011) and Areva SA of France signed a $22 billion agreement today to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey, the first major order for Japan since the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
Bloomberg 3rd May 2013 read more »
Bloomberg 3rd May 2013 read more »
BBC 3rd May 2013 read more »
Turkey stands to be the first country to use the Atmea1 reactor design by Areva and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). An accord signed today could see four of the units deployed at Sinop in the early 2020s.
World Nuclear News 3rd May 2013 read more »
Japan has struck a deal estimated to be worth more than $20 billion (£12.86bn) to build a new nuclear power station in Turkey.
Energy Live 3rd May 2013 read more »
Biomass
Last year, the RSPB, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace published a report, called Dirtier than coal?, that shone a light on some evidence that the biomass industry would prefer was kept hidden. We revealed two important facts: Firstly, government plans to support the conversion of coal plants would mean that by 2017 the UK will be burning 30m tonnes of biomass, most of which will be wood. To give you a sense of proportion, this is about six times the entire UK wood harvest. It will mostly be in coal power stations that are being switched over to biomass. Secondly, burning wood from whole trees results in higher greenhouse gas emissions than coal. For example, the government’s own research has shown that using wood from whole UK conifers results in an increase in emissions of 49% compared with coal.
Guardian 3rd May 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Late last year, the UK’s energy efficiency sector received a major boost when the government announced it would consult on late changes to the Energy Bill that would introduce major new incentives for energy efficiency projects. But six months on fears are mounting across the energy efficiency industry that some of the original ambition contained in the consultation will be watered down. Those fears manifested themselves this week when a coalition of business groups and NGOs wrote to Davey, warning of their “grave concerns” over the government’s plans for electricity demand reduction (EDR). The letter from the Green Alliance, the Association for the Conservation of Energy, WWF-UK, the Co-operative Group, and the University of Oxford’s Nick Eyre, raises concerns the government is likely to use the Energy Bill’s capacity mechanism to support demand reduction efforts and warns that such an approach is “unlikely to deliver the ambition that we share for electricity saving”.
Business Green 3rd May 2013 read more »
Can you think of an industry, besides energy, where companies are actively forced to help their customers buy less of their product? Even when you consider products that are commonly thought of as social ills, such as guns, alcohol and cigarettes, suppliers are not obliged to actively reduce demand for their offerings. It is only energy companies that are forced to fund efficiency schemes designed to ensure their customers use less of their product. But while these companies deserve all the condemnation that is coming their way for initially seeking to game the CERT system and then missing their targets that they had plenty of warning about, there are legitimate concerns about the way in which subsidised efficiency programmes struggle to get customers to sign up to improvement work and as such result in high costs per tonne of carbon saved. These concerns urgently need addressing, not least because they now threaten to undermine the newly launched ECO scheme. Energy companies are not necessarily the best people to pick up the tab for energy efficiency programmes, particularly when they clearly lack the ability to deliver these programmes in a cost-effective manner. The government is introducing demanding new zero carbon home building standards, but these should be made tougher and extended so that you cannot sell, rent or upgrade homes without meeting mandatory energy efficiency standards.
Business Green 3rd May 2013 read more »
Heat
We are hugely import dependent to secure enough of it, its costs are rising and it’s relatively high carbon, yet gas is central to how we provide heat to our homes and businesses in the UK. But, this is all to change, we are told, by the Government’s grand ‘heat strategy policy statement’. At some point in the 2040s, my London flat will be connected to a district heating network which will serve all houses and businesses in London. My friends in more rural areas will have their heating and hot water provided by some sort of electric heat pump system. Well doesn’t that just sound perfect! DECC have travelled a huge distance to get to this point and good on them, the heat strategy has been a huge and complicated project to pull together. Back in 2007 when the DTI released their Energy White Paper, heat barely got a mention apart from a brief reference to energy efficiency. The groundswell has grown to a point now where we have a whole directorate in Government dedicated to heat and industry, as well as a ‘Renewable Heat Incentive’ feed in tariff style mechanism which offers a very tasty return for developers. Why would an average family, landlord or working professional switch from the cheapest and easiest option to a more expensive or complicated heat network. This challenge shouldn’t be underestimated. What would the Daily Mail say about a Government which demanded people replace their own boilers with centrally run heat network schemes most likely at a higher cost?
IGov 2nd May 2013 read more »
Microgenertion
This week’s Micro Power News available.
Microgen Scotland 3rd May 2013 read more »
