Hinkley
WITH Hinkley getting the green light, communities in Sedgemoor and West Somerset are urged being reminded to apply for grants from a £7.2million funding pot. The fund was secured from EDF Energy after West Somerset Council gave planning permission for the site at Hinkley Point to be prepared for the C station development. It is known as the Community Impact Mitigation Fund (CIM). CIM-funded projects can be large or small – but must be directly linked to impacts from Hinkley Point C and seek to improve the economic, social or environmental wellbeing of affected communities.
Bridgwater Mercury 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Wylfa
The 4km tunnel, hailed as ‘one of the most significant civil engineering projects in Wales’, will connect Wylfa Newydd to the main network.
Daily Post 5th Oct 2016 read more »
A map of the pylons which will transport power from Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station on Anglesey has been published for the first time. The route has been produced as part of a consultation into the plant, launched on Wednesday. The National Grid has also published images of the five metre-wide tunnel to be built under the Menai Strait. The pylons have been controversial, with campaigners demanding power is transported by underground cables. The consultation will run until December 16.
BBC 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Energy Policy
Theresa May has been attacked for giving one of the biggest issues of the age – climate change – a single “cursory” mention in her speech to the Conservative party conference. Campaigners described the speech as a “worrying” and accused the Prime Minister of “backing the wrong horse” by not doing enough to create a “smart, efficient, renewable energy future” for Britain.
Independent 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Proliferation
Russia further curtailed its cooperation with the United States in nuclear energy on Wednesday, suspending a research agreement and terminating one on uranium conversion, two days after the Kremlin shelved a plutonium pact with Washington. The Russian government said that as counter-measures to the U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine, it was putting aside a nuclear and energy-related research pact with the United States. It also said it was terminating for the same reasons an agreement between its nuclear corporation Rosatom and the U.S. Department of Energy on feasibility studies into conversion of Russian research reactors to low-enriched uranium.
Reuters 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Cybersecurity
Cyber risk presents a “unique concern” in the energy sector because an attack on energy infrastructure has the potential “to cross from the cyber realm to the physical world”, says a new report by The World Energy Council. The report – titled The road to resilience: Managing cyber risks – says a cyber-attack could cause, for instance, a “massive operational failure of an energy asset”. Large centralised infrastructures are especially at risk due to the potential ‘domino effect’ damage that an attack on a nuclear, coal, or oil plant could cause,” according to the report.
World Nuclear News 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Sellafield
A complex remote cutting job is underway at Sellafield to enable the removal of cladding waste from an outdated silo. Engineers are using an innovative jet to remove plates of steel while maintaining an inert atmosphere important for safety. The work is taking place at the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, which contains cladding materials removed from fuel assemblies used in some of the UK’s earliest reactors at Windscale and Chapelcross. Irradiated cladding had to be removed before used fuel assemblies could be reprocessed to recover the uranium and plutonium they contained for the purposes of the joint power and weapons nuclear program run by the UK in the 1950s and 1960s. The concrete silo is based on facilities normally used to keep grain and was in operation from 1952 to 1964 with some other additions up to 1968. Since then it has remained in the status of ‘care and maintenance’, benefiting in later years from the removal of redundant structures for better seismic safety and the injection of inert argon gas to its six storage chambers. Now, the UK is determined to clean-up legacy nuclear facilities such as this.
World Nuclear News 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Japan
The operator of the nuclear power plant destroyed in the Fukushima disaster five years ago has asked Japan’s government for help in avoiding the risk of the utility going bankrupt should there be a sharp rise in the full estimated clean-up costs. Tokyo Electric Power Co Holdings Inc (9501.T) didn’t specify what kind of help it was seeking, but people familiar with the matter said Japan’s biggest utility is looking for new rules to avoid having to book a huge loss in its accounts if it is estimated that there will be big cost overruns for decommissioning the power station.
Reuters 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Local Energy
Switching to a low-carbon economy offers cities “significant economic opportunities”, an assessment says. Low-carbon markets was worth US $33bn (£26bn) to London’s economy, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) said in its latest report. However, collaboration between public and private sectors was an essential ingredient needed to deliver economic growth and carbon cuts, it observed. The findings examined the commitments made by 533 cities around the world. The report, It Takes a City: The Case for Collaborative Climate Action, added that the cities spread over 89 nations had identified more than 1,000 economic opportunities linked to climate change. Almost 300 cities featured in the report were also developing new business industries, such as clean technology. CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, describes itself as “an international, not-for-profit organization providing the global system for companies, cities, states and regions to measure, disclose, manage and share vital environmental information”. The report was published by CDP and AECOM, a multinational engineering firm, and sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Maia Kutner, head of cities at CDP, said that many cities were already collaborating with businesses so there was “no need to reinvent the wheel” in order to get the two sides talking to each other. A report commissioned by the mayor of London in 2013 suggested that the low-carbon sector was worth in excess of £25bn to the city, and had recorded “solid growth” during the economic downturn. Government figures estimate that the sector could double in size by the middle of the next decade. Other UK cities highlighted as looking to benefit from reducing carbon emissions include Birmingham and Manchester. Earlier this year, a report suggested that Leeds should be the first UK city to convert its gas grid to hydrogen to help meet carbon reduction targets. Globally, the most popular carbon-reduction measure was finding ways to use energy more efficiently.
BBC 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Submarines
British Steelworkers have been betrayed, a union boss claims, as it was reported that a foreign firm will supply metal for the new fleet of nuclear submarines. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon is today due to press the button to begin work on the £41 billion Successor submarine plant at BAE Systems’ plant at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. However, the flagship project of the Government’s defence policy has been rocked after it was revealed that French group Industeel will supply steel for the new submarines’ “pressure hulls”, the outer part of the 15,900 tonne vessels, which will each carry 16 nuclear missiles.
Telegraph 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Times 6th Oct 2016 read more »
Renewables
As we close out a summer marked by uncertainty in news and events, one trend for which analysts voice increasing certainty is the accelerating pace of the clean-energy transformation reshaping how the world generates electricity. With increasing speed, global energy markets are turning away from fossil fuels and towards wind and other renewable sources, not just because they’re clean but because they’re cheaper, more competitive energy choices and offer a level of long-term certainty more price-volatile fossil fuels just can’t match. In fact, by 2030 clean energy is expected to overtake fossil fuels and become the largest source in global electricity production — and wind power is forecast to lead the way to meet the surging demand for renewables. In its 2016 Outlook, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) projects:
Guardian 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Renewables – Scotland
Scotland has had an “astonishing” month for wind energy, managing to generate 100% of its energy needs through wind turbines alone for two full days. WWF Scotland published analysis of WeatherEnergy’s wind and solar power data today (5 October) that revealed another record breaking month for Scottish wind and solar power output. According to the analysis, wind turbines generated more power than Scotland’s overall needs on Saturday 24 and Thursday 29 September – generating 127% and 107% of the country’s power needs on each day respectively. Scotland also managed to direct 766,116MWh of electricity generated from wind turbines to the national grid – enough to power 87% of Scottish households (2.1m homes). This represents a 36% increase from September last year. WWF Scotland’s director Lang Banks said: “September was an astonishing month for wind power, with output up more than a third compared to the same period last year. Even more amazing was that on two separate days, wind turbines alone provided output equivalent to more that Scotland’s total electricity needs on each day – the first time we’ve witnessed this twice in a single month.
Edie 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Daily Record 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Scotsman 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Times 6th Oct 2016 read more »
Energy Efficiency
New research by the Association for the Conservation of Energy and the Regulatory Assistance Project paints a worrying picture of the UK’s prospects for achieving its carbon targets in the building sector: the Government’s own projections for abatement show that the UK will not meet the 5th Carbon Budget in buildings. We need to de-risk, reform, extend and expand existing policies, but also introduce new instruments – especially mandatory minimum energy efficiency standards for buildings when they are sold – in order to speed up carbon abatement in the sector. £45bn is the prize.
ACE 6th Oct 2016 read more »
Energy Storage
The UK (mostly Scotland) has ‘multiple gigawatts’ of renewable energy storage projects pumped-up and primed to proceed – but are stalled pending ‘a better (UK) government policy framework’. New data released by the Renewable Energy Association reveals the extent of energy storage deployment and the industry’s future growth in the UK. There are 35 standalone grid-connected projects operating, spanning technologies from lithium-ion batteries (such as those used in mobile phones or electric vehicles) to pumped hydro systems (where water is stored in a reservoir and released through turbines when electricity demand peaks). At least 1,500 smaller, residential-scale projects are also recorded. The cumulative electricity storage capacity operating in the UK is currently 3.23-GW. At least 453 MW of energy storage capacity has been announced as under construction or being commissioned, in addition to the 200 MW of “enhanced frequency response” storage that was contracted by National Grid last month.
Scottish Energy News 6th Oct 2016 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Scotland’s energy minister is to make a statement on the future of underground coal gasification (UCG) in the country. Environmental groups have said they hope Paul Wheelhouse will announce a ban on the controversial method of converting underground coal into gas. The Scottish government imposed a moratorium on UCG last year while its potential impact was examined. A wider moratorium on unconventional oil and gas extraction, including fracking, also remains in place. Mr Wheelhouse’s statement to Holyrood will follow the submission of a report by former Sepa chief executive Prof Campbell Gemmell, who was tasked with carrying out an independent examination of UCG. UCG is a method of extracting gas from coal seams that are too deep underground to be mined using traditional techniques.Energy firm Cluff Natural Resources had planned to build the UK’s first deep offs hore UCG plant at Kincardine in Fife, which would have extracted gas from coal seams under the Firth of Forth. Cluff had claimed UCG could generate £13bn pounds for the UK, with almost half of it being retained in Scotland. But it halted work on the Kincardine project last year until the political debate on the issue was resolved. UCG licences in the Firth of Forth and Solway Firth were also held by firm Five Quarters, although the company collapsed earlier this year.
BBC 6th Oct 2016 read more »
Scotsman 5th Oct 2016 read more »
Herald 5th Oct 2016 read more »
The government is due later to reveal whether it backs fracking plans, in a landmark ruling for the UK shale gas industry. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid is deciding on a planning appeal by firm Cuadrilla to test frack in Lancashire. His backing would enable shale rock to be fracked horizontally for the first time, in a bid to yield more gas. But, protesters say it uses techniques that risk the environment because of the chemicals and pressure used. Lancashire County Council refused permission to extract shale gas at two sites – Roseacre and Preston New Road – last year on grounds of noise and traffic impact, forcing Cuadrilla to appeal.
BBC 6th Oct 2016 read more »
The fossil fuel industry’s emissions of a powerful greenhouse gas are dramatically higher than previously thought. Researchers who pulled together the biggest database yet of worldwide methane emissions found that, after natural sources were discounted, emissions from gas, oil and coal production were 20-60% greater than existing estimates. Methane makes up just 16% of global greenhouse gases and is shorter-lived than the CO2 which accounts for three quarters, but has a much more powerful warming effect. The extra methane estimated by the study is 300 times larger than the amount leaked in California’s Aliso Canyon last year, which was the worst gas leak in US history. While bad news for efforts to tackle climate change, the new study published in Nature also found that methane emissions had fallen as a fraction of industry’s production.
Guardian 5th Oct 2016 read more »
