Hinkley
Translation of Austrian Press Release: Today, Monday, the Constitutional Service submitted a complaint to the European Court (EuC) against the decision of the European Commission of 8 October 2014, according to which the British Government is allowed to subsidise the construction of the nuclear power plants Hinkley Point. “Subsidies are there to support new and modern technologies that are in the general interest of all EU-states. Nuclear power does not in any way fulfil that,” underlined Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann the Austrian position. Austria especially fights the argumentation of the European Commission, according to which the subsidy would help to support the development of a branch of the economy. “The state guaranteed purchase price over a time of 35 years, the British state credit guarantee of up to 17 Billion British Pound and the compensation in the case of early closure of the installation contradict in our view the criteria for state aid approval”, stressed Faymann.
Austria 6th July 2015 read more »
Austria’s announcement Monday that it would challenge state aid for a new nuclear plant in Britain marks the latest step in the country’s solo campaign to roll back atomic energy in Europe. Since the late 1970s, Austria has been fiercely anti-nuclear, starting with an unprecedented vote by its population that prevented the country’s only plant from providing a watt of power. With the exception of Italy, Austria is surrounded by countries with nuclear power, although Germany, to the north, has vowed to phase out its plants by 2022.
Japan Times 7th July 2015 read more »
The action taken today by the Austrian government is supposedly to challenge the decision by the European Commission to approve the Contract for Difference mechanism proposed for Hinkley Point C. However, the true motivation of the action was revealed by Austrian Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann, who last week issued a statement saying: “This is a further important step in our anti-nuclear policy, whose long-term objective is a nuclear-free Europe.” He went on to say; “This action is not only to suspend the aid, but also as a deterrent to investors, not only in Britain but throughout Europe” Austria’s attempt to impose its national energy policy on others is wrong, both in principle, and because of the harm it would do to Europe’s efforts to tackle climate change. Faymann makes extraordinary claims about the carbon reduction potential of nuclear energy. He claims that; “Compared to wind, water or solar energy nuclear energy is not only expensive, but also in its CO2 footprint distant second behind these forms of energy. This is quite simply incorrect. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) most recent assessment report recognised the low carbon nature of nuclear generation. A review of over twenty different assessments of the full lifecycle emissions of nuclear energy carried out by the World Nuclear Association also confirmed that nuclear generation and renewables have similar low levels of carbon emissions. Nuclear generation has the additional benefit of reliable, 24-7 generation compared to many intermittent renewables, which are also often reliant on backup fossil fuel generation. The CfD strike price for Hinkley Point C is also among the lowest proposed, lower than those on offer to solar and off-shore wind, demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of nuclear generation as a climate change mitigation option. Hinkley Point will provide a clean, secure and affordable source of electricity for around five million homes It will also support around 900 jobs at the new power stations for more than 60 years and around 25,000 employment opportunities throughout the build for nearly a decade.
World Nuclear Association 6th July 2015 read more »
Austrian Legal Challenge To Hinkley Point C Is Doomed To Fail And Will Not Stop This Much Needed Power Station Being Built Says GMB. UK Government can co-join the case and throw their weight behind the case for state aid and we call on them to do so says GMB. GMB, the union for nuclear workers, commented on the appeal lodged by Austria on 6th July at the European Court of Justice against the European Commission over its approval of the UK government’s plan for EDF to go ahead with Hinkley Point C.
GMB 7th July 2015 read more »
A RALLYING call has gone out to opponents of a proposed new road to enable the construction of new T pylons connecting to Hinkley C. East Huntspill Parish Council is fighting the road, which National Grid proposes to build to allow HGVs to access the site.
Bridgwater Mercury 7th July 2015 read more »
Sellafield
We have never been explicitly and clearly told why the risk at Sellafield is “intolerable” or, indeed, the nature of the “risk”. What, then precisely is the “intolerable risk” to which the PAC (Public Accounts Committee) drew attention in its report and to which the NAO (National Audit Office) has referred? Why is it “intolerable”; what is the “risk”? Fairly simple questions, I would have thought. Despite, however, our oft-repeated enquiries, no one at DECC or the NDA or CoRWM or even Sellafield has ever actually answered the questions. Obfuscation and opaqueness continue to obscure and camouflage the official answers. Dr David Lowry’s missive simply could not be more apposite and relevant. It must surely be abundantly clear, given the enormous time-lags between reactors/legacy waste, cooling ponds, storage and final permanent GDF disposal, that a near-surface (Swedish/Forsmark style) facility would go a considerable way towards the provision of a more terrorist-resistant and more secure facility than currently obtains at Sellafield. ~ Eddie Martin
Cumbria Trust 8th July 2015 read more »
Radhealth
Update: In 2013, I discussed several epidemiological studies providing good evidence of radiogenic risks at very low exposure levels. A powerful new study has been published in Lancet Haematology which adds to this evidence. However the study’s findings are more important than the previous studies, for several reasons. The 2005 study excluded workers exposed to neutrons. Therefore the correct comparison is between the risks for non-neutron workers, that is between 4.19 and 1.93 per Gy – an increase of 117%, rather than 50%.
Ian Fairlie 7th July 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
Business, academic and civil society leaders will today call on government to provide a clear message on the future for low carbon technologies, ahead of tomorrow’s Budget announcement. In a report entitled A Brighter, More Secure Future: Low carbon priorities for the new government, the Aldersgate Group urges the government to provide clarity on the funding and ambition for low-carbon technology after 2020. The environmental coalition, which includes Marks & Spencer, Sky and WWF, also calls for the government to prioritise improvements to energy efficiency, and play a key role in international climate negotiations, such as December’s Paris conference.
Business Green 7th July 2015 read more »
Energy Costs
Millions of households are paying too much for their energy bills, the UK’s competition watchdog has concluded in a damning verdict into the six biggest suppliers after a year-long investigation. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said many energy consumers are failing to shop around for better deals, which allows energy suppliers to know “they don’t have to work hard to keep these customers.” The report found that tariffs offered by the six big energy suppliers between 2009 and 2013 were around 5 per cent higher than they should have been, equating to customers paying around £1.2 billion more a year than would have been the case in a competitive market. Dual fuel customers could save an average of £160 a year by switching to a cheaper deal, the report said.
Times 8th July 2015 read more »
David Cameron is “prepared to consider” a temporary cap on the most expensive energy bills, after Britain’s competition watchdog concluded that customers were being overcharged by £1.7bn a year. The prime minister’s spokeswoman said on Tuesday that Mr Cameron did not support a cap across the board – as proposed by former Labour leader Ed Miliband in 2013 – but had some sympathy for a temporary cap on the most expensive bills. The proposal was one of the remedies unveiled by the Competition and Markets Authority after a year-long probe into the energy market – to prevent people who fail to switch to cheaper deals from becoming stuck on expensive products.
FT 7th July 2015 read more »
Telegraph 7th July 2015 read more »
Green Levies
George Osborne will on Wednesday announce a review of green energy taxes and subsidies in an effort to reassure consumers that the government is trying to tackle high energy bills after Britain’s competition watchdog concluded that millions of people are paying over the odds for their energy. The chancellor is expected to use “get tough” language about the need to cut the cost of green initiatives, which have accentuated rising bills in recent years. Industry and government figures told the Financial Times on Tuesday that the chancellor was preparing to review existing business energy levies. He is also set to drop the previous coalition government’s policy of increasing the proportion of tax raised from environmental levies – a commitment that also featured in the Conservative manifesto five years ago. Industry executives expect the chancellor to signal his desire in the longer term to cut the amount consumers are funnelling into renewable energy schemes through their energy bills. The “levy control framework”, used to subsidise wind farms and other low-carbon energy – including nuclear power stations – is expected to reach £7.6bn a year by 2020, adding further pressure on household bills.
FT 7th July 2015 read more »
Energy Supplies – Scotland
The doomed Longannet coal-fired power station is at the centre of a new role after Labour accused the SNP of a lack of long-term planning. The Fife facility was widely expected to survive until 2020 at the latest as a result of a shift towards greener fuel, heavy environmental taxes and its age. But owners Scottish Power are likely to pull the plug by March, far earlier expected. Since then, the Scottish Government has been working alongside Scottish Power, Fife Council and Trade Unions in a bid to win the plant an unlikely stay of execution and offer assistance to the workforce. However Labour energy spokesman Lewis Macdonald, who submitted a series of parliamentary questions seeking details of contact between the Scottish Government, Scottish Power and the UK Government, has said more should have been done to plan for the inevitable closure of Longannet before crisis hit. Responses from Fergus Ewing, the energy minister, indicate that the Government held no formal meetings with the workers’ representatives, the UK Government or Scottish Power specifically regarding the future of the plant until late last year. While concerns over a transmission charging regime which has been blamed for Longannet’s premature closure have been expressed to the UK Government since 2007, the Scottish Government only requested “urgent talks” with the UK Government regarding Longannet in October 2014. Mr Macdonald said: “My concern is that the Government doesn’t seem to have seen this coming, despite everyone knowing closure was on the cards by 2020. It’s disappointing that they have so little to say, other than blaming the transmission charging.
Herald 8th July 2015 read more »
Japan
The government announces September 5 as the date 7,401 residents of Naraha town in Fukushima prefecture can return home for the first time since the 2011 nuclear disaster. The 7,401 residents of Naraha will become the first evacuees able to return home permanently among the seven Fukushima municipalities whose entire populations were ordered to leave following the crisis. The lifting of the first evacuation order will take place more than four years after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami damaged nearby Fukushima nuclear power plant. However, it was not immediately clear how many residents from Naraha, which is around two miles from the plant, will want to return to their hometown from September 5, due to lingering radiation concerns and lack of infrastructure.
Telegraph 8th July 2015 read more »
Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power has begun loading fuel into a reactor at the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in preparation to reboot the country’s nuclear energy generation after a two-year hiatus. The restart, originally planned for July, is expected to take place in mid-August. However, the engineers may run into difficulties reigniting the reactor, which has been idle for more than two years.
Engineering & Technology 7th July 2015 read more »
Canada
Aerial and ground surveys are underway in several locations across northern Ontario as the Nuclear Waste Management Organization moves through its current set of investigations of 18 areas mapped out over the last year by the NWMO as “potentially suitable” for a deep geological repository for high level nuclear waste.
Northwatch 8th July 2015 read more »
Finland
On June 30th, Fennovoima, a Finnish utility, submitted an application to the government to build a nuclear plant. One of the utility’s partners is Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear corporation. To apply for a license, the government requires the project to be 60% owned by companies from the European Union or the European Trade Association. The 60% criterion was put in place by the Finnish government in order to control Russian influence over the country’s energy policy. And that means that Rosatom can’t be the biggest player in this game. But, a strange thing happened on the filing deadline of June 30. Out of the blue, a new financing partner was found so that the project could meet the 60% rule and could go ahead. At least, that’s the claim. Greenpeace Nordic decided to take a closer look at this strangely fortuitous development for Rosatom’s Finnish nuclear project. We uncovered what appears to be quite a different story, from a serendipitous turn of events in the form of a new nuclear investment partner. Instead of a viable European company with a track record that would suggest it is a credible business partner, Greenpeace found a Croatian company, Migrit Solarna Energija, that operates out of an apartment block in Zagreb. It has no employees, capital stock of only 26,000 Euros, and absolutely no income in 2012-2013. And yet, this company is supposedly going to be able to contribute 150 million Euros to the project? More importantly, Greenpeace found what appear to be strong ties between this tiny company holed up in an apartment complex, and Russia’s nuclear giant, Rosatom. The company, established by Russian Mikhail Zhukov, is closely linked to Titan enterprises. Migrit Solarna Energija and Titan enterprises share an office and a fax number. The owners of Migrit Solarna Energija are related to Titan Energija’s director and a businessman with a background with Inteco. This raises the concern that this company, Migrit Solarna Energija, a subsidiary of Migrit Energija, does not fulfill the 60% criterion for the project to move forward.
Greenpeace 7th July 2015 read more »
Switzerland
Switzerland has long met a good portion of its energy needs by using nuclear power. But in the wake of the accident at Fukushima, the country will have to turn elsewhere—while still remaining true to its history of self-sufficiency and energy independence. This effort is made more complicated by fears that one of its traditional energy sources, hydropower, may no longer be as reliable as in the past. But with a combination of energy conservation, greater efficiencies, alternative energy sources, the “smart grid,” and the introduction of new technologies currently on the drawing board, the country may readily be able to replace the energy lost by the closing of its existing nuclear power plants.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists July/August 2015 read more »
Eurek Alert 7th July 2015 read more »
Iran
Iran and major powers gave themselves at least until Friday to negotiate an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme, but a source from one of the powers said on Tuesday they had to wrap up in the next 48 hours.
Reuters 8th July 2015 read more »
America claimed “substantial progress in every area” of its negotiations over Iran’s nuclear ambitions on Tuesday, but said that another deadline for a deal would be ignored and the talks extended by 72 hours.
Telegraph 7th July 2015 read more »
Renewables
A new hub to allow Scottish energy companies to access the burgeoning renewable energy market in Japan has been opened in Nagasaki by Scotland’s Foreign Minister. Nagasaki has been identified as a major area for renewable energy in Japan.
Scottish Energy News 8th July 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
Solar industry aims to boost commercial rooftop schemes with new guide. The association hopes that its checklist will bolster businesses’ confidence in investing in solar panels.
Business Green 7th July 2015 read more »
The White House said it would move to put more solar panels on rooftops in poor, inner-city neighbourhoods to cut electricity bills and fight climate change. The plan, to be unveiled on Tuesday in Baltimore, follows dozens of new initiatives rolled out by the White House since the start of the year to signal Barack Obama’s commitment to act on climate change – even in the face of Republican opposition. America is in the midst of a rooftop solar boom – with installation up 139,000% in the last decade, because of falling costs. But only about 1% of the electricity moving along America’s grid comes from solar, and nearly half of all US households are shut out of solar, because they are renters or their properties are too small to install panels, White House officials told a conference call with reporters.
Guardian 7th July 2015 read more »
Local Energy
When heads of state go to Paris at the end of the year to negotiate a deal to tackle climate change, global city mayors will also be there, arguing that since cities are responsible for 70% of CO2 emissions, the battle should be waged, street by street, at a city level. More than 6,000 European cities have signed up to the Covenant of Mayors, a voluntary commitment to go faster and further than EU climate targets. Their climate action plans call for, on average, a 28% cut in CO2 emissions by 2020, 8% more than the EU’s 2020 target. Last year the Economist listed the Covenant of Mayors as one of most effective global initiatives to help mitigate climate change. Alix Bolle of the European association Energy Cities says many Scandinavian and German cities do well on energy not only because they have highly efficient district heating and cooling systems, but because powers to harness and manage energy are decentralised. “They are capable of making decisions at the right scale and the right speed, and can be quicker than national governments in taking the next steps in the energy transition,” he says. Pioneering plans to establish a municipally owned energy company, based on the Scandinavian model, helped Bristol earn the crown of European green capital this year. Will Straw, co-author of an IPPR report, City Energy: a new powerhouse for Britain, says Plymouth, Nottingham and Chester are also looking to set up their own energy services companies, spurred on by the government’s devolution agenda. The Scandinavian cities have shown that it makes sense from a climate perspective, says Straw. “There are a lot of clean technologies – like solar, district heating, and combined heat and power – that are very much suited to being organised at a local rather than national level.”
Guardian 6th July 2015 read more »
Climate
New Climate Economy’s 10 ways to solve climate change. Major new report says world must invest $1tr per year in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Business Green 7th July 2015 read more »
A landmark climate change conference in Paris this December has triggered commitments on carbon emissions curbs from most of the world’s major polluters – but those pledges will still not be enough to bring about the reductions scientists say are necessary. A new report published on Tuesday shows that the remainder of the needed reductions in carbon can be found if actions are taken at a local level, deforestation is halted, and other greenhouse gases are tackled. The New Climate Economy, a group of experts and academics, said that if its recommendations were followed, between nearly two-thirds and 96% of the extra carbon cuts needed to avoid dangerous global warming could be found.
Guardian 7th July 2015 read more »
12 tools for communicating climate change more effectively.
Guardian 6th July 2015 read more »
