Bradwell
Chinese-designed nuclear technology could be a reality in Essex sooner than expected, after a leading figure at French energy giants EDF claimed construction could begin by 2022. The state-owned China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) agreed a deal in October to take a majority share in a new build at Bradwell-on-Sea, in exchange for £6 billion of funding for another plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset. EDF, who will retain a stake in any new build at Bradwell, have claimed that they will help CGN obtain approval for their reactor design, before the Chinese group can apply for planning permission. If permission is granted, it has been estimated that construction could start on the site by 2022 or 2023.
Essex Chronicle 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Hinkley
Duncan McGinty Leader, Sedgemoor District Council: For Sedgemoor, Hinkley Point does offer a unique opportunity over the next few years. EDF Energy and its partners will invest £18bn over the next decade in Sedgemoor and West Somerset into the first new nuclear power station in the UK in a generation. It will create 25,000 on-site jobs spread over a decade, and lead to hundreds of millions of pounds invested in the local economy. Significant investment has already been secured into the town; through the Innovation Centre at Dunball; at the College and in the Cannington Bypass.
Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Nuclear Subsidies
Tim Farron: I have written to the Prime Minister to demand explanation of the governments decision to subsidise nuclear power to be generated by foreign companies. I will write again when I have recieved the response. This decision is all the more unwanted at a time when the government has jeopardised the vibrant solar power industry by its immediate withdrawal of the support for Feed in Tarriffs.
Radiation Free Lakeland 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
Alistair Phillips-Davies is chief executive of SSE: The UK Government can help provide clarity and stability for the energy sector. I wrote in this newspaper in May that Amber Rudd, the new Energy Secretary, would not want to wait long at the energy policy traffic lights to deliver the Conservative Party’s objective of clean, affordable and secure energy supplies. She didn’t. Swift action was taken to reduce support for onshore wind and solar power. And with the forthcoming Spending Review and a proposed energy policy “reset” by government, we will soon find out more about Amber’s plans to go green. To have a chance of preventing the dangerous impacts of climate change, it is essential that strong, ambitious commitments are secured at the UN Climate Change conference (COP21) in Paris. Because energy remains a major source of carbon emissions, industry and government will need to work tog ether to deliver these commitments in a way that is cost-effective for consumers. Energy needs a period of clarity and stability to deliver the next stage of investment in new energy infrastructure – and the Governmen t can provide this. In the past, governments have awarded subsidies to particular technologies – wind and solar previously, now nuclear – then changed the subsidy regime as technology costs fell or as the political winds changed. But to deliver the stability required, this Government can help, and making sure the full cost of carbon dioxide emissions is factored into energy investments from the outset is a key part of this. A strong, stable and long-term price for carbon would mean no debate over whether Hinkley Point was a better or worse investment for UK customers than, say, an offshore wind farm or a gas-fired power station. Rather, the best value for money investment would go ahead. The ambition for the next decade must therefore be to ensure that carbon price policy can deliver this certainty; and in the meantime to target help for less mature and new technologies, like offshore wind and carbon capture and storage, so they can reach maturity.
Telegraph 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Costs
Recent changes to government energy policy mean Britons are likely to miss out on electricity price reductions now being seen in Germany. The price of wholesale electricity in Germany has fallen by 37% since 2011 owing to the addition of large amounts of wind and solar capacity, which produce the cheapest electricity once installed. According to one recent analysis, renewables have begun similarly to drive the wholesale price downwards in the UK. Now a new study, published in the journal Nature Materials, shows that Britain was on track to reap the same scale of dividends seen in Germany before the government withdrew support for onshore wind and solar energy. “If Britain carried on building wind and solar at the rate we’ve seen over the last few years, the fall in the wholesale electricity price would continue,” said Keith Barnham, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Imperial College London, lead author on the new study. “Unfortunately, policy changes mean the rate of solar and onshore wind power build is going to plummet, so UK companies will miss out on the dividends that their German competitors are starting to enjoy.” The Nature Materials analysis shows that before the raft of recent UK policy changes, such as withdrawing onshore wind projects from the Renewables Obligation and drastically cutting the Feed-in Tariff for rooftop solar, UK renewables were being built fast enough that as a proportion of total electricity demand they would roughly catch up with Germany around 2018-2020. Thus, the same scale of price fall seen there would be likely to materialise here. “This study confirms that renewables do lead to cheaper electricity,” commented Catherine Mitchell, Professor of Energy Policy at Exeter University, who was not involved with the study. “It’s somewhat baffling that the UK Treasury either isn’t aware of this or inclined to take advantage of it, particularly when industries such as steel are complaining about high energy prices.” Prof Barnham’s analysis also suggests that subsidies paid through bills for the proposed nuclear power station at Hinkley Point could be substantially higher than the government estimates.
Blue & Green Tomorrow 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Government energy policy changes since the election are likely to increase CO2 emissions, according to BBC analysis. The government said subsidies had become over-generous and changes were needed to keep energy bills down. But opposition parties say the changes overturn a decade of consensual energy policy and are furious they have not been subject to parliamentary debate. The BBC’s audit suggests some moves will save consumers money, but others will actually increase bills. The chancellor’s vehicle excise duty changes, for instance, will make motoring more expensive for the drivers of small clean cars. And ministers’ political decision to reject onshore wind energy and solar power in the countryside is likely to stem the growth of two of the UK’s cheapest sources of clean energy. These may need to be replaced by more expensive types of clean power if the UK is to meet its long-term climate change targets. Adrian Gault, chief economist for independent government advisory body the Committee on Climate Change, told BBC News that even changes designed to reduce bills might indirectly increase them in the long run. He said the uncertainty generated by the U-turns in policy would increase the risk to lenders and so increase the cost of borrowing, which could push bills up.
BBC 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Supplies
Holyrood’s Energy Minister has written to Amber Rudd seeking reassurance that energy security issues are being “properly considered”. The Scottish Government said Fergus Ewing’s letter to the UK Energy Secretary follows a market notification earlier this week from National Grid of a “shortfall” in reserve capacity. Mr Ewing has raised concerns over electricity capacity margins and urged the UK Government to change policy direction to “ensure faster build of new power capacity”. He said: “National Grid issuing an urgent request for more electricity shows it is becoming even harder pressed to keep the lights on this winter and highlights the complacency of the UK Government’s energy policy. “The Scottish Government have warned the UK Government – repeatedly and at the highest levels – of the consequences of declining capacity m argins, both face to face and in letters from the First Minister to the Prime Minister. These warnings have been ignored and advice rebuffed, despite mounting evidence of a problem. “The fact that National Grid were forced to pay £2,500 per megawatt hour earlier this week compared with the typical price at that time of about £60 shows how worrying this situation has become. Ultimately it is the bill payer that has to pay for those huge spikes in electricity costs so if the situation is repeated there is a real danger of increasing energy bills for consumers.”
Daily Mail 8th Nov 2015 read more »
Cybersecurity
Cyber attacks on energy supplies, nuclear power stations and defence industry double in 12 months: Seven ‘significant’ attacks every day are being identified by GCHQ. Major cyber attacks that could cripple Britain’s energy supplies, nuclear power stations and defence industry have doubled in a year, GCHQ has warned. Spy chiefs said Britain’s listening post was identifying 200 ‘significant’ cyber attacks a month – around seven a day – compared with just 100 a month last year.
Daily Mail 10th Nov 2015 read more »
Plutonium
A leading scientist has said that Cumbria is sitting on a stockpile of what could be thousands of years of energy in the bank. Professor of nuclear fuel technology at the University of Manchester, Tim Abraham, made the comments earlier this month at a briefing to discuss the fate of the UK’s plutonium. It is estimated that Sellafield has a has around 140 tonnes of the material, now the largest stockpile of civil plutonium in the world. The government hasn’t decided what to do with the stockpile yet, but in 2013 the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) indicated that it would prefer to reuse it as fuel rather than just dispose of it. This would require new reactors that are able to use plutonium as fuel to be built, a complex and expensive process. Professor Abram said: “Having [a store of] separated plutonium without a declared end use represents a poor international example. “We should at least keep the process moving forward and not give the impression to the world that we have stalled.”
In Cumbria 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Uranium
The landlocked West African country is nearly last on the UN Human Development Index. It also has the world’s fifth-largest recoverable uranium reserves, some 7% of the global total. Niger’s two major uranium mines are the country’s second-largest employer, aside from the government. For over half a century, the country has struggled to benefit from its uranium wealth. The small number of buyers and sellers of uranium has given outsize power to France’s state-owned nuclear services company, which operates the mines in Niger, a former French colony.
Business Insider 8th Nov 2015 read more »
Radwaste
Letter: I have long been an advocate of Dr Burton’s novel and sensible ideas for alternative ways of storing radioactive waste. But after much thought, I have become somewhat sceptical of Dr Burton’s latest idea (Letters, October 20) for disposing of liquid radioactive waste into boreholes for the following reasons.
Whitehaven News 4th Nov 2015 read more »
US
On Feb. 11, 1985, the cover page of Forbes thundered, “The failure of the U.S. nuclear power program ranks as the largest managerial disaster in business history, a disaster on a monumental scale.…” Fourteen months later, reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl exploded and burned for 40 days, spreading radioactive fallout across the entire Northern Hemisphere, depositing cesium-137 in Minnesota’s milk and Japan’s topsoil. So how is it that Congressional representatives, TV network pundits, FOX ditto heads and even CNN program directors still promote nuclear power? Part of the answer comes from American University researcher Judy Pasternak and her students. According to Pasternak’s 2010 study, the nuclear industry spent $645 million over 10 years lobbying Capitol Hill, and another $63 million in campaign contributions over the same period. Between 1999 and 2008, these millions manufactured the canard that nuclear power is “carbon free,” “clean” and can “help fend off climate change.” Prior to this spending blitz, the US nuclear power program was, because of the shock of accidents at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986, “pretty well dead in the water” — in the words of economist and author Jeremy Rifkin.
Counterpunch 5th Nov 2015 read more »
The US Administration has underlined its vision of a strong role for nuclear in the country’s clean energy strategy. It has announced actions to sustain and finance nuclear energy, including supplements to the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) federal loan guarantee solicitation to support nuclear energy projects.
World Nuclear News 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Japan – Fast Reactors
The decision by nuclear power regulators to call for a change in the operator of Monju, the nation’s sole prototype fast-breeder reactor, not only puts the fate of the trouble-prone project in question but raises serious doubts about the government’s decades-old policy of seeking to establish a nuclear fuel cycle. The government should take the upcoming recommendations from the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) as a cue to rethink the controversial and effectively stalled policy itself.
Japan Times 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Russia
The complete remediation of a radioactive lake near Russia’s notorious Mayak Chemical Combine is said to be nearing completion by Nuclear Engineering International, but environmentalists say it is too early to trumpet the success. Nils Bøhmer, Bellona’s executive director and nuclear physicist estimated that current plans to seal off the lake and prevent further radioactive emissions would last about two to three decades before they started to show signs of failure and have to be revisited.
Bellona 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Trident
TRIDENT submarines, when they are not sailing the seven seas, are based at Faslane, some 15 miles away from Glasgow. Imagine if they were based in Tilbury — a few miles away from London — what political shenanigans that would cause. Who can be surprised that the Scottish National Party (SNP) has come out foursquare against the presence of nuclear weapons on Scottish soil? This nuclear pacifism has won support to the nationalist cause and the continuing quest for independence. Yet the Scottish Labour Party at the last general election clung to the view that Trident was necessary for the defence of the realm. Nuclear deterrence remains the name of the game. But what a game. It is a lethal one of threats and counter-threats, of bluff and double bluff. It assumes that there is a strategic rationality which underpins it.
Morning Star 10th Nov 2015 read more »
Letter Lord Hutton: The chief of the defence staff is perfectly entitled to say what he did on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday Our nuclear deterrent rests on the basic premise that the prime minister would be prepared to sanction the use of these weapons of last resort in order to prevent a nuclear attack on our country. By ruling out under all circumstances the use of these weapons Mr Corbyn has effectively rendered redundant the entire basis on which our defence policy has been based for the past 60 years. General Sir Nicholas Houghton has therefore broken no constitutional convention by simply pointing this out. If he had done anything less he would have been failing in the duty he owes to us all. It is the Labour leader, not General Houghton, who is in the wrong. The chief of the defence staff must not be gagged or bullied into silence. We need to hear his views loudly and clearly.
Times 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Letters: General Nicholas Houghton wants to waste £100bn on updating a nuclear relic from the cold war which can never be used without ensuring our own destruction.
Guardian 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Houghton has not just broken taboos over Trident, he has undermined democracy.
Guardian 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Jeremy Corbyn came under attack yesterday for his refusal to countenance the use of nuclear weapons, writes Commander Robert Green. But his stance is honourable and both legally and strategically correct – especially with his opposition to renewing the Trident nuclear missile system.
Ecologist 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Unusually for a serving military figure, Gen Sir Nicholas Houghton did not mince his words when he was asked at the weekend about Jeremy Corbyn’s policy on our nuclear deterrent. The chief of the defence staff expressed concern on the BBC about the Labour leader’s declaration that there were no circumstances in which he would use Britain’s Trident deterrent should he become prime minister. “It would worry me if that thought was translated into power,” he told The Andrew Marr Show. It should worry all of us. Mr Corbyn seems utterly oblivious of the threats to the nation’s security inherent in the reassertion of Russian nationalism in eastern Europe and the growing instability in the Middle East and Gulf regions. But he always was careless of this country’s defences. Mr Corbyn did not believe in a deterrent even when the nation was faced with the nuclear might of the Soviet Union.
Telegraph 10th Nov 2015 read more »
A former Navy chief yesterday waded into the row over ‘political interference’ by military chiefs. Admiral Lord West, the former First Sea Lord, said General Sir Nicholas Houghton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, had said ‘more than he should have done’ when he warned over Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to press the nuclear button.
Daily Mail 10th Nov 2015 read more »
Renewable Targets
A letter from Energy Secretary Amber Rudd leaked to The Ecologist shows that she misled Parliament by promising the UK was ‘on course’ to deliver on its renewable energy targets – when in fact there is a delivery shortfall in 2020 of almost 25%. Her plan to fill the gap relies on more biofuels, buying in green power and ‘credits’ from abroad – everything but wind and solar.
Ecologist 9th Nov 2015 read more »
The energy secretary, Amber Rudd, has been accused of misleading the public after a leaked letter revealed that the UK is predicted to fall short of its European Union obligations to get 15% of its energy from renewables by 2020. The letter from Rudd, which was obtained by the Ecologist magazine, discloses that the department’s internal forecasts say the UK will only manage to get about 11.5% of energy from renewables by that point, but adds that “publicly we are clear that the UK continues to make progress to meet the target”. The disclosure is particularly explosive because the govern ment has been cutting subsidies for solar and wind energy, while maintaining that it is on course to meet its international targets. In June, Rudd said in the House of Commons that the UK “will still be meeting our targets” and was “committed to ensuring that we deliver on our decarbonisation targets”, as she spoke about ending new subsidies for onshore wind power. But the letter, dated 29 October and circulated to four other ministers, says: “The trajectory currently leads to a shortfall against the target in 2020 of around 50 TWh (with a range of 32-67TWh) or 3.5% points (with a range of 2.1-4.5% points) in our internal central forecasts (which are not public). Publically we are clear that the UK continues to make progress to meet the target.” It also warns that the UK could be liable for fines if it misses the EU target and a judicial review if it does not have a credible plan to meet its obligations.
Guardian 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Telegraph 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Renewables
Prof John Schellnhuber says that if countries implement their pledges made for Paris climate summit it will give huge boost to wind, tidal and solar power. Catastrophic global warming can be avoided with a deal at a crunch UN climate change summit in Paris this December because “ultimately nothing can compete with renewables”, according to one of the world’s most influential climate scientists. Most countries have already made voluntary pledges to roll out clean energy and cut carbon emissions, and Prof John Schellnhuber said the best hope of making nations keep their promises was moral pressure. Schellnhuber is a key member of the German delegation attending the Paris summit and has advised Angela Merkel and Pope Francis on climate change. He said there was reason for optimism about the Paris talks, where at least 80 heads of state are expected. “That is a very telling thing – a sign of hope – because people at the top level do not want to be tainted by failure,” he said. If a critical mass of big countries implement their pledges, he said in an interview with the Guardian, the move towards a global low-carbon economy would gain unstoppable momentum.
Guardian 9th Nov 2015 read more »
The Prime Minister has defended government proposals to slash renewable energy subsidy support today, arguing investments in technologies such as wind turbines and solar farms are pushing up bills for the steel industry and small business owners. Following his speech to the CBI annual conference today, Cameron was accused by the director of a Devon-based solar power company of launching a “wholesale assault” on renewable energy and clean tech policies. Gabriel Wondrausch, managing director of Sungift Energy, asked Cameron if he planned to boost support for the sector given that the UK has recently fallen out of the top 10 ranking for renewable energy investment attractiveness. However, a number of energy policy experts, including former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey, have argued that scrapping support for onshore wind – the lowest cost clean energy technology in the UK – and solar power could actually push up consumer energy bills in the long run.
Business Green 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
Over 50,000 people have written to the government urging it to maintain support for rooftop solar, according to environmental NGO Friends of the Earth. The responses were submitted as input to the government’s consultation on proposed cuts to renewable energy subsidies, which closed two weeks ago.
Business Green 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Renewables – wave
ALEX Salmond’s £10million wave power prize should be scrapped, critics have claimed, amid fresh evidence of it sinking into chaos. The Saltire Prize, an ambitious international contest designed to make Scotland a world leader in wave and tidal power development, was launched with great fanfare in 2008. Earlier this year it was revealed none of the competitors could meet the qualifying criteria by the 2017 deadline. Despite that, the Scottish Government remained committed to awarding the prize, though it has now emerged that new rules to make it winnable will not not be drawn up until next year, just months before the close of the contest. Of the four remaining competitors, one, Aquamarine Power, called in administrators last month. A fifth, Pelamis, pulled out after going into administration a year ago. Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Conservative MSP, said the prize had become a “white elephant” and called for the money to put to better use. However it has been defended by Scottish Renewables, the industry body tasked with redesigning the contest, which said it would drive innovation in the offshore renewables industry.
Herald 10th Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Efficiency
A number of investors are looking at acquiring part or all of the Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC), after the government refused to extend its senior loan facility earlier this year. Sources close to the GDFC indicated any fresh investment was unlikely to revive the government’s domestic pay-as-you-save (PAYS) energy efficiency financing programme, but could result in the sale of its £50m loan book and back-end systems. A spokesman for GDFC confirmed it has been approached by 15 parties since the government refused to extend the GDFC’s senior loan facility four months ago. The move effectively signalled an end to the previous coalition government’s flagship energy efficiency scheme. However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) maintains the framework that enabled the pay-as-you-save scheme could be revived with private investment.
Business Green 9th Nov 2015 read more »
Energy Storage
If current trends hold, the world is on a trajectory to achieving energy storage that will be cheap enough to allow 24/7 clean energy in the next 15-20 years, writes famous author and thinker Ramez Naam. Bill Gates recently told The Atlantic that “we need an energy miracle”. The same article quotes him as saying that storage costs roughly an order of magnitude too much. How quickly will the cost of storage drop? I attempt to answer that question here. Predictions of the future are fraught with peril. That said, if the current trajectory of energy storage prices holds, within a decade or two mass energy storage of a significant fraction of civilization’s needs will be economically viable.
Renew Economy 10th Nov 2015 read more »
Climate
Climate change is set to pass the milestone of 1C of warming since pre-industrial times by the end of 2015, representing “uncharted territory” according to scientists at the UK’s Met Office. 2015 is also set to be the hottest on record, as the temperatures are so far beating past records “by a country mile”, they said. The World Meteorological Organization further announced on Monday that 2016 would be the first year in which the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is over 400ppm on average, due to the continued burning of fossil fuels.
Guardian 9th Nov 2015 read more »
The world is halfway towards the threshold that could result in dangerous climate change, scientists have warned, after revealing that average global temperatures have recorded a rise of one degree Celsius for the first time. Record warm temperatures measured in the first nine months of this year mean that the world has already reached the halfway point towards the arbitrary “threshold” of a 2C increase on pre-industrial levels judged to be potentially dangerous for climate change, the Met Office said.
Independent 9th Nov 2015 read more »
