Westinghouse
The Lancashire firm leading the UKs nuclear renaissance has vowed it will keep its headquarters in the county. Westinghouse, which is one of two firms bidding for multi-billion pound contracts to build reactors across the country, has said it will look to the central Lancashire area to locate its head office if it can secure work to build its AP1000 reactor. It already has a head office on Matrix Park at Buckshaw Village, near Chorley and runs the Springfields Fuels factory at Salwick, near Preston, which employs several hundred people. Mike Tynan, the vice-president for Westinghouse in the UK, Middle East and Europe, said it remained in talks with a number of major utilities groups which own land earmarked for new development with a view to secure contracts to build the new power stations. It is known that Westinghouse is in the running to build reactors on land next to existing reactors at Wylfa on Angelsey, North Wales, and Oldbury, Gloucestershire, which is owned by the Horizon Nuclear Power Group. Mr Tynan said it expected to get a decision from Horizon early in the New Year as to whether it will choose the AP1000 or the Areva EPR.
Lancashire Evening Post 31st Dec 2011 more >>
Iran
Top negotiator Saeed Jalili said Iran was ready to rejoin EU-led talks with major powers on assuaging Western concerns over its nuclear programme even as tensions with the United States soared in the Gulf.
EU Business 1st Jan 2012 more >>
U.S. President Barack Obama signed new sanctions against Iran into law on Saturday, shortly after Iran signalled it was ready for fresh talks with the West on its nuclear programme and said it had delayed long-range missile tests in the Gulf.
Reuters 31st Dec 2011 more >>
Renewables
The world’s largest solar power plant powers up in Spain.
Independent 1st Jan 2012 more >>
Juliet Davenports Good Energy was the first to offer 100% renewable power to homes and it now supplies more than 28,000 customers. Good Energy, originally called Unite, was founded in Chippenham, Wiltshire, in 1999 with backing from Monkton, an investment group specialising in green energy. It gave consumers the option of a 100% renewable electricity supply sourced from wind, solar and small hydroelectric schemes. Interest grew only slowly, not least because green power was more expensive. Even today, it is generally 5% to 10% costlier than conventional energy sources. We have now managed to get to the stage where our prices do compete with some conventional electricity suppliers, Davenport said. As the price of energy rises, people become more aware of why they are having to pay more and want to learn about what we are doing. Interest in green electricity has increased with the help of government initiatives. In April 2010, the feed-in tariff was introduced to encourage renewable energy generation. Once registered for the subsidy, individual homes and businesses are entitled to a sum of money for every unit of electricity they produce. Of the 85,000 generators registered since the tariffs launch, 12,000 supply Good Energy.
Sunday Times 1st Jan 2012 more >>
