Hinkley
China is drawing up secret plans to build two nuclear reactors on the site of Hinkley Point in Somerset if the existing £21 billion deal collapses. The Chinese government has a “plan B” to bypass EDF, the French energy giant responsible for the project. China believes that it can build its own reactors on a faster timetable than the project run by EDF, in which they have made an investment, according to Lord Howell of Guildford, the former energy secretary and father-in-law of George Osborne. His statement will raise the pressure on the beleaguered Hinkley C project, which intends to supply about 7 per cent of Britain’s electricity. EDF announced yesterday that the project’s cost could increase from £18 billion to £21 billion, a 16 per cent increase since October. It also said that the project would not be completed before 2027, ten years later than originally planned. Building work would last at least nine and a half years once the project had been finally signed off. Last night Moody’s, the American credit agency, said that it was downgrading EDF’s rating to “negative” because of “incremental risks” associated with Hinkley C, and could further downgrade it if the project went ahead. Moody’s said: “The outlook could be returned to stable provided that EDF decides not to proceed.” Shareholders at EDF’s annual meeting yesterday criticised the Hinkley Point project. Jean-Paul Escoffier, a shareholder, told the board that he was “amazed” by a presentation from the company’s chairman, Jean-Bernard Lévy, which he said reflected a gap with reality. “You presented a world that seemed beautiful this morning,” Mr Escoffier said. Another shareholder, Nicolas Miguet, asked Mr Lévy: “Don’t you feel you are just carrying the bags for the Chinese with Hinkley Point?”
Times 13th May 2016 read more »
Politics Home 13th May 2016 read more »
IB Times 13th May 2016 read more »
Daily Mail 13th May 2016 read more »
Mirror 13th May 2016 read more »
An energy giant owned by the Chinese state has denied it plans to step in with a “Plan B” at Hinkley Point should a £21 billion deal with the French collapse. China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) issued the denial after former energy secretary Lord Howell told the Lords the Chinese were prepared to “bypass EDF altogether” at the Hinkley C project in Somerset. CGN said a report in The Times that the Chinese had drawn up a plan to take over the site completely in the event the EDF pulls out was “without foundation”. The Chinese are currently seeking approval for their reactor technology from British regulators, whereas French designs have passed. A CGN spokesman said: “China General Nuclear Power Corporation has no plans to build nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point C. “Our intention is to obtain regulatory approval to build our reactor design at Bradwell in Essex.”
Press & Journal 13th May 2016 read more »
Chinese companies are ready to step in and offer to build new reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset if French company EDF backs out of the government’s flagship energy project, it has been claimed. David Howell, father-in-law of George Osborne, told the House of Lords on Thursday night about Beijing’s intentions just as EDF faced even more opposition from its own private shareholders to the Hinkley scheme at its annual general meeting in Paris. The huge opposition inside EDF to Hinkley and problems with an EPR being built at Flamanville in France has led many – including apparently the Chinese – to question whether EDF will be forced to abandon the British project. The FT reported that one shareholder, Gilles Sauront, speaking at the AGM held in the Louvre art gallery, as saying: “Every decision has been terrible and it is us who are paying for it … The EPR project (in the UK) has no credibility.” The share price of EDF has been hammered as the uncertainty over Hinkley increased while cost overruns and delays increased at the Flamanville project.
Guardian 12th May 2016 read more »
EDF, the French utility group lined up to build Britain’s Hinkley Point nuclear reactor project, has made provision for costs to increase by £2.7bn to almost £21bn. In a statement before its annual general meeting, the struggling energy company said its ownership commitment on the project could rise from £12bn to £13.8bn. Its Chinese partner, CGN, could be liable for an extra £900m, taking its commitment to £6.9bn. AN EDF spokesman said the existing £18bn estimate contained contingency planning for general cost overruns and that the extra £2.7bn was to ensure the project was completed if there was an extraordinary or catastrophic event.
Guardian 12th May 2016 read more »
The cost of the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant could reach almost £21bn, £3bn more than planned, EDF has admitted, as it published a construction timetable suggesting first power could be delayed until 2026. EDF said in October that the cost of building the new twin reactor plant in Somerset would be £18bn. The French state-backed energy giant said it would provide £12bn of equity and Chinese investors CGN would provide £6bn. But EDF admitted on Thursday: “The partners’ equity commitment includes a contingency margin and could reach a total of £13.8bn for the EDF Group and £6.9bn to CGN.” In a document published ahead of its shareholder meeting, EDF also disclosed that the schedule for Hinkley “anticipates a 115 month construction period after the final investment decision until commissioning of the first reactor”. Amber Rudd, the energy secretary, declined to comment on the potential cost increase when asked by Labour’s Lisa Nandy in parliament on Thursday, but insisted that the project would go ahead.
Telegraph 12th May 2016 read more »
In a statement the company said the contingency needs of its project to build two nuclear reactors in Britain could increase the cost by about £3bn to £21bn. EDF also said on Thursday that it would commit to provide “limited” financial guarantees to CGN, particularly in the case of cost overruns related to delays to the project schedule, or in the event of a challenge to the CfD by European authorities. It did not specify the size of these guarantees.
Power Engineering International 12th May 2016 read more »
French utility EDF said on Thursday that contingency margins on its project to build two nuclear reactors in Hinkley Point, Britain could increase the cost by about three billion pounds to nearly 21 billion pounds ($30.27 billion). In a statement ahead of its annual shareholders’ meeting, EDF also said that it anticipates a 115 month construction period – five months short of 10 years – after the final investment decision until commissioning of the first reactor. EDF said in October that the Hinkley Point investment would be equity financed by EDF and its Chinese partner CGN with EDF’s share amounting to 12 billion pounds and CGN’s share 6 billion pounds. Thursday’s statement specified that each partners’ equity commitment includes a contingency margin and could reach a total of 13.8 billion pounds for EDF and 6.9 billion pounds for CGN.
Daily Mail 12th May 2016 read more »
Plymouth Herald 12th May 2016 read more »
Belfast Telegraph 12th May 2016 read more »
EDF also said it expects it to take 115 months (9.5 years) between a final investment decision until commissioning of the first reactor.
Reuters 12th May 2016 read more »
Jean-Bernard Levy, chief executive of EDF, faced criticisms from irate minority shareholders, who expressed anger over Hinkley Point problems and the general performance of EDF. In the past 12 months, EDF’s shares have halved in value and been ejected from France’s main stock market index. As a result, the company’s 37bn euro net debt now dwarfs its market capitalisation – although it remains profitable. Gilles Sauront, a sharehold er speaking at the meeting in the Louvre art museum, said: “Every decision has been terrible, and it is us who are paying for it. The EPR project [in the UK] has no credibility.” Jacky Rousseru, a minority shareholder, said the EDF management had not got to grip with costs, and was unable to face up to the privileged unions – leaving shareholders with “no confidence in the company”. One shareholder in the packed conference questioned EDF’s claim that the Hinkley project would achieve a 9 per cent annual return for the company over its lifespan. “You say it is 9 per cent, but what devils are hidden in the contract?” the investor asked. “If it is so profitable, why not list it on the stock exchange?”
FT 13th May 2016 read more »
FOR months a profound somnolence has settled over Hinkley Point C, where the government hopes to install an £18 billion ($26 billion) nuclear power plant. On a recent weekend the security guards were not on the gate. Dozens of diggers and bulldozers were lined up as if on sale. A sign hung at the entrance displaying the core values of the project. One of them was “Know how far we’ve come, how far we’ve got to go, and how we’re going to get there.” In fact, no one has a clue when or how the world’s most expensive power station will get anywhere. EDF, the French contractor, has once again postponed a decision to go ahead—until September. There are growing fears that the French nuclear technology it intends to use is flawed. The British government, which has offered a huge subsidy to ensure that nuclear power helps keep the lights on and emissions down for decades to come, insists it will go ahead. But that conviction is shared only by local villagers, who shrug off the delays as a fact of life. “This is Somerset. We invented the word mañana and sold it to the Spanish,” a female Land Rover driver says jauntily. In the long-run there may be no option but to muddle through until renewables work without subsidies, and backup technologies such as battery storage or nuclear power become cheaper and more efficient. For now, the strain on the grid is lightened by feeble electricity demand in Britain, which is still more than 10% below its level before the financial crisis in 2008-09. But that could change if more people start plugging in their cars rather than filling them up, and switching on industrial plants rather than stoking their furnaces. The country with the cheapest and most abundant electricity will prosper in such a future. At this rate, it won’t be Britain.
Economist 14th May 2016 read more »
Moorside
Vast worker ‘villages’, a visitor centre and new stretches of railway have been outlined in plans for a new nuclear power station. NuGen has detailed what will be involved in its £10bn Moorside project as it gets set to apply to the Government for a development consent order that will licence and authorise construction near Sellafield. As part of the application to the Secretary of State, NuGen – a joint venture between Toshiba and ENGIE – has released more information about the huge project. The public get their chance to have their say when a major 11-week consultation begins on Saturday.
Carlisle News & Star 12th May 2016 read more »
Whitehaven News 12th May 2016 read more »
Toshiba
Toshiba said on Thursday that it suffered a $4.4 billion full-year net loss as the troubled conglomerate booked a massive write-down of its US nuclear unit, but said the worst was over as it forecast profits for the current business year. Toshiba has been besieged by problems, most notably a profit-padding scandal in which bosses for years systematically pushed subordinates to cover-up weak financial results. In an intensive makeover effort, the company has been shedding businesses and announced in March it sold its medical devices unit to camera and office equipment maker Canon. The company had already announced a write-down of ¥260 billion at its US nuclear unit Westinghouse after a rise in financing costs, but has said that ¥665.5 billion in revenue from the sale of the medical devices unit to Canon outweighed the negative impact. Toshiba said it would return to the black for the year to March 2017, projecting a net profit of ¥100 billion and operating profit of ¥120 billion, while sales are expected to edge down to ¥5.1 trillion. It said the expected recovery was based on efforts to concentrate on its profitable businesses, while it forecast its nuclear power and other energy units would improve.
Channel Asia 12th May 2016 read more »
CfD
The Government’s much vaunted ‘contracts for difference’ (CfD) auction system for funding renewable energy has been thrown into disrepute after a key project awarded a contract has had its contract cancelled by a government agency. This is because of a delay in a court appeal against the Government’s own planning consent for the project. There is no procedure for allowing more time for the project or for awarding a contract to one or more runners up in the auction contest. The RSPB lodged a judicial review case which began hearings almost a year ago against planning consent given to four Scottish offshore windfarms on the grounds that they damaged bird species. Meanwhile the Government which had awarded a CfD contract in early 2015 to one of them, to Mainstream power for the 448 MW Neart na Gaoithe project near the Forth Estuary, has allowed the contract to be cancelled by the Low Carbon Company (a government agency). This is on the grounds that the project has failed to meet its milestones to ensure the project begins operation in 2018. Mainstream says that the only thing holding it up before its contract was cancelled was the court procedure.
Dave Toke’s Blog 12th May 2016 read more »
New Nuclear
Global nuclear electricity generation is expected to almost double by 2040, according to the latest projection by the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA). Most of this growth will be in the developing world, it said.
World Nuclear News 12th May 2016 read more »
Trident
Replacing Britain’s aging Trident nuclear deterrent will likely cost £205 billion (US$296 billion), more than doubling since it was calculated in 2014, disarmament campaigners warn. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) calculated the figure using the latest publicly-available data, answers to parliamentary questions and previous costs of relevant items including warheads. CND noted the figure did not take into the account the fact Ministry of Defence (MoD) projects typically go over budget.
Russia Today 12th May 2016 read more »
The National 13th May 2016 read more »
Herald 13th May 2016 read more »
India
EDF will deliver a proposal to the Indian government by year’s end to build six nuclear reactors, an executive at the French utility said on Thursday, in what could be the world’s biggest nuclear deal.
Reuters 12th May 2016 read more »
South Africa
South Africa will have connected 7 000 megawatts of renewable power to its grid by July, the energy minister said on Wednesday, and still plans to go ahead with a nuclear expansion plan. Africa’s most industrialised country has turned to solar and wind power to diversify its energy mix and help plug electricity shortages. The first 47 renewable energy independent power producers are due to be fully operational by July. It also hopes to install 9 600 MW of nuclear power in the next 15 years to address chronic electricity shortages, but the cost of the project estimated at about $100 billion has raised budgetary concerns.
IOL 12th May 2016 read more »
Germany
On Monday, both Agora Energiewende (a Berlin-based think tank) and Clean Energy Wire (an associated communications team) announced that renewable electricity “probably” covered more than 90 percent of power demand at 58 GW for a couple of hours on Sunday. Yet Agora’s press spokesperson was notably circumspect: “It is far from certain the share was above 90 percent.” He was cautious for good reason. By the end of the day, Agora’s website showed a much different estimate of power demand peaking at 68 GW. Whatever the share of renewable electricity was on Sunday, let’s clear up some confusion: First, we are only talking about electricity, not energy. The power sector makes up only around 20 percent of the German energy demand. And renewables made up only 15 percent of total energy consumption last year in our best estimate (no official estimates will be published for a while).
Renew Economy 13th May 2016 read more »
Australia
Companies working on large-scale solar thermal projects in Australia say they are tantalisingly close to achieving the dream of building plants big enough to replace coal-fired energy in Australia. Experts speaking at the Australian Solar Energy Exhibition and Conference in Melbourne last week said the technology had been proven in other countries, and projects in Australia were viable, but the challenge was getting major investors to gamble on something new. James Fisher, the chief technology officer of Australian solar energy company Vast Solar, said solar thermal energy had been the “poor cousin” to photovoltaic solar panels for some years, but that may finally be changing. “We’ve got a whole lot of coal-fired power stations that largely are 30-plus years old and many of them are going to retire naturally,” he said. “[Concentrated solar power] CSP is basically a complete coal-fired power replacement.”
Guardian 13th May 2016 read more »
Hydrogen
Good Energy is looking into the possibility of supplying low-carbon power for the production of hydrogen, after signing a memorandum of understanding with clean fuel company ITM Power. Good Energy founder and chief executive Juliet Davenport said: “The opportunities to work with ITM power to see how we can integrate the transport, heat and electricity market are really exciting, and we think we are a great fit to supply zero carbon renewable electricity for this inspiring venture.”
Utility Week 12th My 2016 read more »
Renewables – offshore wind
The future of one of the UK’s biggest proposed offshore windfarms has been thrown into doubt by a row over the government support it should receive. The Neart na Gaoithe windfarm, based in Scotland’s outer Forth estuary, would have a capacity of about 450MW of power and was originally planned to cost £1.4bn to build, though that is likely to rise to more than £2bn. But reports from the Financial Times and BBC on Thursday suggested that the contract for the windfarm was to be terminated. The Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) had sent a notice to the developer, Mainstream Renewable Power, effectively withdrawing the subsidy. Mainstream Renewable Power has taken legal action over the notice and said it “strongly disputed the validity of the termination notice”.In a statement, that it said had been agreed with the LCCC, the windfarm developer said: “Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Limited are currently in arbitration with the LCCC over the terms of its contract for the Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm in the outer Firth of Forth.”
Guardian 12th May 2016 read more »
A £2 billion offshore wind farm is set to be scrapped after it lost a Government subsidy contract due to an ongoing legal challenge over its impact on birds. The proposed Neart na Gaoithe wind farm would see 64 turbines built nine miles off the coast of Fife and was one of only two offshore wind projects to win a subsidy contract from the Government last year. Under the terms of the contract, £200 million had to be committed to the project by a deadline of March 26. But developer Mainstream Renewable Power said it was unable to do so while the wind farm was still subject to a legal challenge by the RSPB, which claimed the 646-feet tall turbines, together with others proposed in the area, would be among “the most deadly for birds anywhere in the world”. Wildlife groups fear the wind farms could kill large numbers of gannets from t he nearby Bass Rock colony, the largest in the world. While a Scottish judge hearing the case has yet to decide whether planning permission should be revoked, it appears the challenge in itself may have succeeded in killing off the project.
Telegraph 12th May 2016 read more »
Dong Energy, the Danish company that has invested £6bn in UK offshore wind power, is planning to float in what would be one of Europe’s biggest listings this year. Dong is already the single largest investor in UK offshore wind projects and plans a further £5bn of spending over the next five years. The state-owned utility said it intended to launch an initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq Copenhagen, but would not comment on the potential valuation of the company.
Guardian 12th May 2016 read more »
Times 13th May 2016 read more »
FT 13th May 2016 read more »
Renewables – tidal
In yet another ‘world-first’ for the Scottish energy industry, Orkney based Scotrenewables Tidal Power has today launched its 2MW SR2000 – the world’s largest energy generating tidal turbine. The company, which is at the forefront of the floating tidal technology sector, launched the 550 tonne machine at Harland & Wolff yard in Belfast, N. Ireland. This is the first commercial scale machine the company has built. The turbine will undergo preliminary tow trials in Belfast Lough before being towed to the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney to commence a grid connected test programme.
Scottish Energy News 12th May 2016 read more »
Zero Carbon Homes
The chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) has warned that the UK government’s failure to build new homes that are energy efficient will see future generations dealing with our costly mistakes. New rules on Zero Carbon Homes, that were due to come into force this year, would have required new housing developments to generate as much clean energy – through renewable sources like solar panels or ground heat pumps – as they use in hot water, heating, lighting and ventilation. They would have also insulated us against climate change by making sure our homes are cosy and warm and only require minimal heating. But last year the government scrapped the rules. We know that houses built today could still be housing people a hundred years from now. We are also legally committed to cut climate-changing emissions by at least 80% by 2050. We need to be building houses that are fit for the future. We have the technology and building techniques to construct houses that generate their own power and hardly need heating. We owe it to future generations to use them.
Edie 12th May 2016 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Fracking on fields near the North York Moors national park has been given the green light for approval despite fierce opposition. A UK firm has applied for permission under the government’s new fast-tracking scheme to explore for shale gas around the village of Kirby Misperton, provoking angry protests from environmental campaigners and locals. Work on the site moved a step closer after a report by North Yorkshire county council recommended permission be granted for testing on deposits first identified in the area by Third Energy in 2013.
Guardian 13th May 2016 read more »
