Hinkley
Former Deputy Chair of the Liberal Democrats, Donnachadh McCarthy, writes to Lib Dem DECC Secretary of State Ed Davey about Hinkley C nuclear power station. Yesterday’s announcement of the tearing up of the Lib Dem and Tory manifesto promises, and the coalition agreement for no subsidies to nuclear was accompanied by no basic cost/benefit analysis. Where is the comparison for jobs created, carbon saved, fuel poverty eliminated and UK jobs created by investing £420 billion in nuclear poison creation v energy efficiency / regulation / renewables?! Any responsible political party not in the pockets of their in-house party nuclear-lobbyists, would carry out such an independent analysis and publish it for scrutiny. But the sorry fact is we have no such party of government – as all 3 parties are infected with internal bought nuclear lobbyists.
Ecologist 1st Nov 2013 read more »
Companies
Amec is looking to recruit an additional 300 skilled personnel for its nuclear division based in Cheshire. The company is looking for safety consultants, project managers and mechanical and electrical engineers. Amec is part of the Nuclear Management Partners consortium, whose £22bn Sellafield clean-up contract was renewed earlier this month.
Construction Index 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Caroline Flint: The government’s Energy Statement was an Annual Excuses Statement. We have an out-of-touch Prime Minister who would rather announce endless reviews and consultations than stand up to the big energy companies.Today’s Annual Energy Statement could not have come at a more important time. Energy prices are rising three times faster under this government than the last, bills are up by £300, and the latest price rises will add another £100 this winter. For people in fuel poverty, the gap between their bills and what they can afford is at an all-time high. But for the companies, the mark-up between wholesale costs and the prices they charge grows ever-wider.
New Statesman 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Are the Big Six energy companies really singing from the same hymn sheet, or is this perception unfair? Ofgem is going to review competition and prices in the energy market, according to an announcement by energy secretary Ed Davey today. What will the review look into, and what can it achieve? The current debate over energy bills has created a growing appetite for more clarity on how the energy market works. The test will be whether the new system of reviews is able to provide some answers.
Carbon Brief 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Voters in the “squeezed middle” are flocking to the Labour party after Ed Miliband pledged to freeze fuel bills for 20 months if he wins the next general election, according to a new poll that shows a dramatic fall in support for the Liberal Democrats. As energy prices dominated prime minister’s questions for the fourth week in a row on Wednesday, in the wake of Miliband’s speech to the Labour conference last month, the YouGov poll shows a 14-point increase in support for Labour among voters classified as members of the “squeezed middle”. Support for the Liberal Democrats in this group has fallen by 21 points while the Tories have seen their support fall by five points.
Guardian 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Power company bosses who conspire to inflate prices by rigging the energy market could soon face jail, the Government announced today following accusations of being soft on the “Big Six” firms which supply almost all of Britain’s gas and electricity.
Independent 31st Oct 2013 read more »
The Government has vowed to “light matches under the feet” of the Big Six energy suppliers with a series of measures to boost competition and help smaller rivals poach their customers. Michael Fallon, the energy minister, told the Daily Telegraph he was considering handing small energy suppliers more generous exemptions from paying controversial ‘green taxes’ that the Big Six have blamed for pushing up bills.
Telegraph 31st Oct 2013 read more »
A record number of consumers are switching to independent energy suppliers to avoid the latest round of inflation-busting price rises announced by the Big Six firms. First Utility, the UK’s biggest independent supplier, is set to increase its customer base by 50 per cent after more than 200,000 new customers registered in the past month alone. Independent suppliers are on course to more than double their market share next year but at just over 2 per cent it is a share that pales into insignificance next to the Big Six, who supply everyone else.
Times 1st Nov 2013 read more »
Sellafield
COPELAND is unable to take advantage of pooling its business rates with the rest of the county because of a potential appeal from the nuclear industry, a meeting has heard. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Sellafield Ltd are currently weighing up whether to appeal for a reduction in the business rates paid to Copeland, which totals £30million in 2013/14. Until the outcome of any appeal is known – likely to be towards the end of 2014 if it goes ahead – Copeland will not take part in a strand of the newly-introduced Business Rates Retention Scheme (BRRS), which allows local authorities to pool their income to potentially attract financial incentives.
Whitehaven News 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Finland
The Areva-Siemens consortium has increased its claim against Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) to €2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) in relation to the delay and cost overruns of the Olkiluoto EPR. The consortium has submitted an updated claim to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) for damages up to the end of June 2011. Areva-Siemens had previously sought damages of €1.9 billion ($2.6 billion) from TVO. This updated claim includes around €70 million ($95 million) of payments delayed by TVO under the construction contract, some €700 million ($953 million) of penalty interest and €120 million ($163 million) of alleged loss of profit.
World Nuclear News 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Japan
Japanese regulators on Wednesday gave final approval for the removal of fuel rodsto start in November. About 200 of the rods that are unused and safer are expected to be the first. Nuclear regulatory chairman Shunichi Tanaka, however, warned that removing the fuel rods from Unit 4 would be difficult because of the risk posed by debris that fell into the pool during the explosions. “It’s a totally different operation than removing normal fuel rods from a spent fuel pool,” Tanaka said at a regular news conference. “They need to be handled extremely carefully and closely monitored. You should never rush or force them out, or they may break.” He said it would be a disaster if fuel rods are pulled forcibly and are damaged or break open when dropped from the pool, located about 30 meters (100 feet) above ground, releasing highly radioactive material. “I’m much more worried about this than contaminated water,” Tanaka said.
Energy News 30th Oct 2013 read more »
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant should be stripped of responsibility for decommissioning the wrecked facility, according to Japan’s governing party, as the utility prepares for the most dangerous phase yet in the cleanup operation.
Guardian 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Germany
While David Cameron was donning hard hat and overalls at Hinkley Point last month to announce the construction of the first nuclear reactor since the Fukushima disaster, coxless fours were rowing silently past Krümmel nuclear plant near Hamburg. Kernkraftwerk Krümmel, on the banks of the Elbe in the small town of Geesthacht, northern Germany, is one of eight nuclear power plants shut permanently in the country following the Fukushima meltdown. A further nine, built relatively recently which have unblemished safety records, will be shut by 2022 as part of Germany’s energiewende march from nuclear to renewables. A year later, if all goes to plan, Britain will switch on Hinkley Point C – two reactors built at a cost of £16bn by France’s state-owned EDF with funding from China. “The Brits are crazy,” Claudia Roth, incoming deputy speaker of the German Bundestag and former head of the Green party, said in an interview with the Guardian. “How can one build new nuclear plants when all the world understood, or should have understood, that Fukushima was not an exception but a part of the industry.
Guardian 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Submarines
The Helensburgh and Lomond public was not at risk from a string of accidents which exposed workers at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde to radiation, the Ministry of Defence has revealed.The MoD released information which revealed radioactive waste was spilled, a bag of waste mistakenly dropped overboard, power supplies lost, and safety valves wrongly operated. Six of the incidents happened at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde in the last five years, while a further five were reported at Devonport in Plymouth.
Helensburgh Advertiser 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Test Veterans
Scunthorpe veterans of nuclear test site, Christmas Island, says they did not know how dangerous the work they were carrying out was. The British nuclear veterans are fighting for compensation from the Government, claiming they have suffered a lifetime of illness following the exposure to radiation.
ITV 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Grid Connections
Consumers’ energy bills could be reduced by hundreds of pounds per year by adopting smarter domestic heat and electricity systems. This will allow consumers to be properly rewarded for the money they save utilities by producing their own power when it is expensive to buy, by using power at times it is cheaper to produce, and for providing other services to the grid.
Energy & Environment Management 30th Oct 2013 read more »
Iceland’s president Olafur Grimsson is expected this week to call on the British government to provide financial support for the construction of a £4.3bn subsea electricity cable – which will be the longest in the world – linking his country to the UK’s electricity grid. The ambitious project, drawing on hydro geothermal and wind power generation, could deliver five terawatt-hours a year to Britain at a cost 15% lower than offshore wind, according to Iceland’s state-owned electricity firm Landsvirkjun.
Guardian 27th Oct 2013 read more »
Thorium
Nuclear scientists are being urged by the former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix to develop thorium as a new fuel. Mr Blix says that the radioactive element may prove much safer in reactors than uranium. It is also more difficult to use thorium for the production of nuclear weapons. His comments will add to growing levels of interest in thorium, but critics warn that developing new reactors could waste public funds.
BBC 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Renewables
We should replicate the best elements of Germany’s power sector transformation, while ditching the excesses. The German strategy has relied on transitioning towards energy sources where marginal costs are close to zero because the sun shines and the wind blows for free. Increasing levels of wind and solar power capacity have been a key factor in driving down wholesale electricity prices in Germany. They fell from over €80 per MWh at peak hours in 2008 to just €38 per MWh today and renewable energy now supplies 22% of Germany’s electricity demand on average. This increase in renewable power has been driven by unsustainably generous subsidies. But today the cost of renewable energy is so much lower than it was when the Germans started implementing their energy transformation. They have locked in high subsidies, but we can now secure much more ‘bang for our buck’. We can now build renewable energy at prices that are increasingly competitive. Since 2009 the costs of onshore wind and solar PV have fallen by 15% and 44% respectively, which makes well-located renewable power cost-competitive with coal and gas without subsidy. Their costs will continue falling. This should be the story driving UK energy policy, not the current outburst of collective irrationality.
Independent 28th Oct 2013 read more »
The solar industry is moving ever closer to what many expect will be a global tipping point. As we documented last week, many of the leading manufacturers are now predicting that annual installations will tip 50GW for the first time in 2014. The top range of the forecast has now been lifted to 55GW by leading analyst NPD Solarbuzz. That is significant, because it means that in the last six months, forecasts for the coming year have soared by 50 per cent. And it would represent a real increase in installations of more than 60 per cent, underpinned by surging demand in three key markets – US, China and Japan.
Renew Economy 31st Oct 2013 read more »
The proportion of the UK’s electricity generated by renewables increased by 60 per cent between the second quarter of 2012 and the second quarter of 2013. But some of the rise will be short-lived after the closure of a major biomass power station. The figures are contained in the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s latest ‘snapshot’ quarterly energy statistics. The figures track energy production and consumption between mid 2012 and mid 2013, and show a significant rise in renewable electricity production.
Carbon Brief 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
ACE Research, in partnership with Joanne Wade, was commissioned by the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (eceee) and the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) to identify and review a wide range of energy efficiency finance schemes from around the world for the World Energy Council (WEC). The research is part of a suite which informed 2013′s World Energy Congress in Daegu, South Korea, this October.
ACE 30th Oct 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Fracking for shale gas is safe as long as operations are well-regulated and well-run, the main public health watchdog for England said on Thursday, after reviewing evidence from the US on the controversial technology. The study, from Public Health England, found that one of the biggest potential threats from hydraulic fracturing – the contamination of groundwater – was “likely to be caused by leakage through the vertical borehole” used for fracking. As a result, well integrity – the assurance that the fracking wells have no form of leak or damage that could cause a leak – was identified as the key concern. However, the authors of the study were unable to say whether current government regulations and the operations of the UK’s only company to have fracked for shale gas, met the criteria of being “well-regulated and well-run”, and whether potential problems with well integrity had been addressed.
Guardian 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Independent 31st Oct 2013 read more »
Telegraph 31st Oct 2013 read more »
