EDF
French utility EDF has launched a sale of its Polish coal-fired heating and power plants worth up to 2 billion zlotys ($497.56 million) and has hired law firm Dentons and investment bank Rothschild to help, the Puls Biznesu daily reported on Wednesday citing unnamed sources.The planned sale is part of EDF’s low-carbon strategy as the company wants to focus on nuclear energy and needs billions of euro to invest in a nuclear project in Britain. In Poland EDF’s plants hold a 15-percent share of the heating market. Its 1.7 gigawatt (GW) coal-fired power station in Rybnik in southern Poland generates around 7 percent of the electricity consumed in Poland.
Reuters 13th Jan 2016 read more »
EDF and French nuclear group Areva have agreed that Areva’s reactor business is worth slightly more than 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) as part of EDF’s plan to take a controlling stake in the unit, two sources said on Wednesday. In late July, EDF agreed to buy 51 to 75 percent of the Areva NP reactor unit based on a value of 2.7 billion euros for the entire division, though it has since been the subject of tough negotiations. Talks between the two groups have stalled over differences about the value and how to take into account risks linked to a much delayed and over budget reactor Areva is building in Finland that has plunged it deep into losses.Les Echos reported that once EDF makes a firm offer, the government may indicate how large a capital increase Areva would need, which may be in the range of 3.0-4.5 billion euros, according to its sources. EDF has indicated that it would not accept being exposed to risks linked to the Finnish reactor as Areva and its Finnish customer Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) seek billions of euros in damages from one another. Les Echos said one possibility under consideration would be to transfer the Finnish contract from the reactor division to Areva the parent company, leaving the state to bear risks tied to the project.
Reuters 13th Jan 2016 read more »
EDF’s shares plunged to an all-time low on Tuesday after estimates on the cost of nuclear waste storage released by the French national radioactive waste agency were released. The company, headed by Jean-Bernard Levy dispute the findings made by Andra that storage costs could be higher than EDF’s estimates but the news saw shares drop to as much as 7.3 percent before closing down 4.4 percent at 11.96 euros. Andra said costs for the Cigeo deep geological storage project could be as high as 30 billion euros or as low as 20 billion depending on assumptions about different cost factors in coming years. However in a letter to the energy ministry, posted on the ministry’s website, EDF, fellow state-controlled company Areva and the CEA (Atomic Energy Authority) said they estimated the cost at around 20 billion euros. “Andra’s study only took into account a small number of possible optimisations,” they said in the letter, adding that a certain number of costs and ratios used by the state agency were not in line with their experience. “We are waiting for a decision of the energy minister on the cost of storage,” an EDF spokesman said. The energy ministry’s decision on the 10 billion-euro gap in estimates could have a huge impact on the already stretched balance sheet of EDF, whose 58 nuclear power plants produce the bulk of France’s nuclear waste.
Power Engineering International 13th Jan 2016 read more »
Energy Policy
Energy and climate change secretary indicates key areas for energy policy in 2016 in one of her first meetings with business leaders since Paris agreement. The fall out from the drastic green policy changes the government announced last year have left many green businesses at a loss as to what to expect next. But speaking last night at an Aldersgate Group event, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd insisted that recent policy moves do not mean the government is “turning [its] back on the green economy” and promised ministers would deliver a new emissions reduction plan by the end of the year which will lay out the full details of its new policy approach. While the strategy is expected to build on the government’s plans for a switch from coal to gas in the power sector, a new fleet of nuclear power stations, and increased investment in renewables capacity, Rudd hinted there will also be action on a number of additional fronts. Rudd indicated the new plan will include measures to increase energy efficiency and will lay out a long term framework for heat, saying the government recognises more needs to be done on both fronts. Heat will also be a priority for the fourth carbon budget, Rudd said, which will set out how carbon reductions will be achieved from 2023 to 2028. “There is action we need to take to address to address decarbonising in peoples homes, and addressing heat is going to be part of it,” she said. “I recognise how important it is to get something done, particularly for the existing housing stock, some of which is very leaky, and we are working at the moment on different policies and I hope to come back with more proposals.”
Business Green 13th Jan 2016 read more »
Energy Costs
Wholesale gas and electricity prices in the UK hit a five-year low at the end of 2015, according to latest research by energy market analysts. The cost of energy on the wholesale market tumbled to £36.76 per megawatt hour on the Power Index, compiled by market information provider ICIS. The causes were a mild winter and lower global commodity prices, ICIS said. Pressure is mounting on the UK’s big six energy suppliers to cut their prices in line with falling costs.
BBC 14th Jan 2016 read more »
David Cameron fired a shot across the bows of energy suppliers yesterday for failing to cut the cost of household bills despite falling wholesale prices. His comments follow a story in The Times yesterday which revealed that almost five million pensioners will have to ration heating this winter because they cannot afford their energy bills. Asked during prime minister’s questions why many older people were dying of the cold each year, he said: “The winter deaths are a standing rebuke to all governments about what more needs to be done. “We have got in this country now falling energy prices because of the falling oil price. I agree they are not falling as fast as I would like. And that is why I think it is right that we have this competition commission inquiry into the energy industry to make sure it is a fully competitive industry.” Last May the energy secretary wrote to the chief executives of each of the big six suppliers asking them to cut prices to reflect falling wholesale costs. Since then, wholesale prices have dropped by a fifth and only British Gas has cut bills, and only by 5 per cent and only on gas. Dan Jarvis, the Labour MP who asked the prime minister about winter deaths, said: “We seem to accept pensioners freezing to death as something that just happens. Last winter 43,000 people died because of the cold but those deaths are avoidable. In colder countries fewer people die from the cold than here and that shames our country.” In the next two weeks the Competition and Markets Authority will publish provisional recommendations on how to increase competition in the industry after concluding last year that households were being overcharged by £1.2 billion a year.
Times 14th Jan 2016 read more »
R&D
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has pledged to “light the fire” of energy innovation in 2016, by ramping up investment in research, development and demonstration (RD&D). Speaking last night (12 January) at an Aldersgate group event at Lloyds in London, Rudd said that energy innovation would be a key theme for the UK over the next year. “We don’t have all the answers for decarbonisation,” she said. “We must develop technologies that are both green and cheap. Costs of clean energy and clean transport must continue to fall. “The UK has strong capabilities in R&D and we have been responsible for some amazing steps forward, but we need to do better and we need to be smarter. We need to breathe new life into the research, development, demonstration and deployment cycle.” One of the innovations that Rudd mentioned specifically was energy storage, which has been a hot topic already in 2016, with several companies planning and completing big projects. Rudd said that storage had an important role to play in the UK’s low-carbon future. However, critics in the audience also pointed out that the Government’s record on new technology was chequered after it recently pulled the plug on funding for carbon capture and storage, which is expected to play a crucial role in decarbonisation.
Edie 13th Jan 2016 read more »
Nuclear Regulation
Cumbria Trust is alarmed to hear that the Office For Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the independent statutory corporation, which is supposed to regulate the siting, design and construction of a Geological Disposal Facility is in a seriously weakened state. The other regulator, the Environment Agency also appears to be in some disarray having just lost its Chairman, Sir Philip Dilley. Unfortunately this allows the GDF developer, Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) to continue the siting process with less oversight, which is not good news for Cumbria. Early indications are that RWM still has its sights set firmly on Cumbria, despite its proven geological unsuitability. Cumbria Trust responded to RWM’s recent consultation on geological screening HERE and we will continue to ensure that RWM is closely scrutinised.
Cumbria Trust 14th Jan 2016 read more »
Cybersecurity
A leading information technology security expert says the recent hacking of power infrastructure in the Ukraine is a wake-up call for utilities who had been ignoring warnings about the threats posed. Hackers, suspected to have originated in Russia, succeeded in shutting down the Ukraine’s power grid last week in what security experts say is the first such case resulting in a power outage.
Power Engineering International 11th Jan 2016 read more »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday it was helping Ukraine investigate an apparent attack last month on the country’s power grid that caused a blackout for 80,000 customers. Experts have widely described the Dec. 23 incident at western Ukraine’s Prykarpattyaoblenergo utility as the first known power outage caused by a cyber attack. Ukraine’s SBU state security service has blamed Russia for the incident, while U.S. cyber firm iSight Partners linked it to a Russian hacking group known as “Sandworm.”
Reuters 12th Jan 2016 read more »
An audit report has called on the US nuclear agency to revise its IT contracts to ensure better cyber security.
Computer Weekly 13th Jan 2016 read more »
France – radwaste
French nuclear regulator Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN) has called for an update of the estimated cost for France’s planned deep geological repository for high-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste. ASN said the previous estimate of between €13.5bn €16.5bn ($14.6bn and $17.8bn) dates from 2005 and contains assumptions that are “too optimistic” and “not in compliance with the requirement of necessary caution to such an assessment”. Moreover, at this stage of project development, uncertainties are inevitable, ASN said. It is essential to provide a regular update mechanism for cost benchmarking, particularly at key stages of project development, ASN said. The cost assessment is used to calculate the funds nuclear operators must set aside to cover expenses related to the management of their radioactive waste. These funds must ensure that these costs will not be borne by future generations, ASN said. French radioactive waste agency Andra is responsible for developing the Centre Industriel de Stockage Géologique, or ‘Cigéo’.
NucNet 12th Jan 2016 read more »
The cost for the French nuclear waste repository project, or Cigéo, could range from €20bn ($22bn) to €30bn ($32bn) depending on assumptions made about technological progress or potential “project optimisations”, Andra, the French agency managing the project, said in a statement. The assessment of these costs is a delicate exercise because it requires making assumptions on labour costs, taxation, materials or energy for over 100 years, Andra said. The country’s main nuclear waste producers – EDF, Areva and the French alternative and atomic energy commission (CEA) – said yesterday they would suggest a cost estimate of €20bn for the project. Earlier yesterday French nuclear regulator ASN called for an imperative and urgent update of the cost estimate for Cigéo. ASN said the previous estimate of between €13.5bn €16.5bn dates from 2005 and contains assumptions that are “too optimistic” and “not in compliance with the requirement of necessary caution to such an assessment”.
NucNet 13th Jan 2016 read more »
South Africa
Amory Lovins: SA has an immediate crisis in supplying reliable electricity. The government’s curiously oblique solution: eight new nuclear reactors, costing about R1-trillion. The inherent complexity of procurement, financing and construction means no new nuclear power could flow for at least a decade, and then only at prices well above those many customers cannot afford today. The country’s past two flirtations with modern nuclear power have not gone well. Plans for a home-grown “pebble bed” modular reactor were abandoned in 2010 after 12 years and R7bn was wasted. Now rarely mentioned, it found no customers or investors, but its advocates’ influence lives on. In 2008, the government rejected as “unaffordable” bids to build 3.2GW of conventional nuclear reactors. Today, its ambition is three times bigger — 9.6GW — and each gigawatt will cost about three times more because real costs rose while the rand lost half its value. So, the total price tag has increased about nine-fold since 2008, while SA’s per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) has not risen a bit. With the national debt approaching junk-bond status, nuclear “affordability” has hardly improved. Between 2008 and 2013, Eskom provided incentives for customers to save 2.5GW. Those “negawatts” were 91% cheaper than Eskom’s most advanced power plants, let alone the coal they will burn. Far more efficiency is possible. A team of experts from the Rocky Mountain Institute helped engineers redesign a vast mine to use 43% less energy, improve miners’ health, and boost profits, through investments that will pay for themselves in a few years. New nuclear power — with its costs rising, demand shrinking, and renewables winning in the marketplace — lacks a business case for SA, whichever country provides the technology. There’s no rational basis for discriminating against efficiency and renewables, all of which avoid the same fuels and emissions and can provide the same electrical services many times over at a lower cost than nuclear power.
BD Live 13th Jan 2016 read more »
China
The world’s largest polluting nation is cementing its position as a global green energy powerhouse, with new figures revealing that China’s production of renewable energy systems has swelled to 913 GW.
Edie 13th Jan 2016 read more »
China General Nuclear (CGN) expects to complete construction of a demonstration small modular offshore multi-purpose reactor by 2020, the company announced yesterday.
World Nuclear News 13th Jan 2016 read more »
US – Radwaste
Proposals to bury plutonium from nuclear weapons must address chemical interactions and intrusion risks, say Cameron L. Tracy, Megan K. Dustin and Rodney C. Ewing. More than 600 metres below ground near Carlsbad, New Mexico, is the world’s only operating deep geological repository currently accepting transuranic nuclear waste: that contaminated by elements heavier than uranium. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), run by the US Department of Energy (DOE), is used to dispose of laboratory equipment, clothing and residues from the nation’s nuclear-defence programme. In the past 15 years, around 91,000 cubic metres (equivalent to covering a soccer field to a depth of about 13 metres) of such transuranic waste, mostly of relatively low radiation levels, has been placed there. An arms-control agreement with Russia made in 2000 obliges the United States to dispose of 34 tonnes of plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons. Following the terms of the agreement, the United States planned to convert the material into a fuel — mixed (uranium and plutonium) oxide, or MOX — to burn in commercial nuclear-power plants. But faced with soaring construction costs for a MOX fabrication facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the DOE has commissioned evaluations of alternatives. The most recent report, published in August 2015, recommends burying the weapons’ plutonium at WIPP. Judging the repository’s performance to have been “successfully demonstrated”, the DOE’s Red Team expert panel proposes that the 34 tonnes of weapons plutonium can be added to WIPP once it has been diluted to low concentrations comparable to that of the transuranic waste at WIPP. Before expanding WIPP’s plutonium inventory, the DOE must examine more carefully its safety assesment for performance that stretches to 10,000 years and beyond.
Nature 13th Jan 2016 read more »
US – new reactor types
A US House of Representatives committee has approved a bipartisan bill to support federal research and development (R&D) and stimulate private investment in advanced nuclear reactor technologies. The approval came as President Barack Obama said the country must move away from “dirty energy”.
World Nuclear News 13th Jan 2016 read more »
US – solar
Over the last year, the solar industry added jobs twelve times faster than the rest of the economy, even more than the jobs created by the oil and gas extraction and pipeline sectors combined. The Solar Foundation released its annual Solar Jobs Census Tuesday, and found that for the third straight year, the solar workforce grew 20 percent in the United States. According to the census, the industry added 35,052 jobs, elevating its grand total to 208,859. That builds on the 31,000 jobs added the year before, and 23,600 added the year before that.
Climate Progress 12th Jan 2016 read more »
Hungary
Hungary has so far failed to explain how the Paks nuclear power plant expansion project does not conflict with state aid rules, the European Commission said yesterday. In response, the Hungarian government said the EC’s investigation of the matter contains “a number of inaccuracies and misunderstandings” as well as “unfounded and misleading assertions”.
World Nuclear News 13th Jan 2016 read more »
Weapons Convoys
Scotland’s police force has been accused of harassing peace campaigners who followed a nuclear bomb convoy by road around Glasgow and Stirling on Saturday afternoon. An SNP MSP is to complain to the chief constable of Police Scotland after activists from the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (SCND) were pulled over near Stirling, and their car was subjected to a detailed roadworthiness check. Students filming the convoy from a roundabout were also questioned by police.
RobEdwards 12th Jan 2016 read more »
Renewable Targets – Scotland
An industry body has called for Scotland to triple the amount of renewable energy it produces within the next 15 years. Scottish Renewables said it should be possible for the country to source half of all its energy from sources such as wind farms or hydro schemes by 2030. That goal would include heat and transport, and electricity generation. Today the figure stands at 15% but Scottish Renewables said the new 50% target would be achievable. Scotland is already expected to meet a target of producing the equivalent of 100% of its electricity demand from renewable energy schemes by 2020. Scottish Renewables said the time had come to raise the bar.
BBC 13th Jan 2016 read more »
Edie 13th Jan 2016 read more »
Clean Technica 13th Jan 2016 read more »
Business Green 13th Jan 2016 read more »
Energy Storage
The number of new stationary battery systems connected to solar arrays on German homes and businesses in 2015 far outnumber the number of electric vehicles that rolled onto roads. A new study has revealed the result demonstrating that despite the German government’s official target of one million new electric cars by 2020, solar+storage is gaining significant traction in the market. The uptake of solar+storage in Germany has in some way compensated for the precipitous decline in PV systems being installed in 2015. Figures from the RWTH Aachen University published today has 12,363 electric cars were sold in Germany in 2015, at least 20,000 privately owned stationary storage systems were installed alongside PV arrays.
Renew Economy 13th Jan 2016 read more »
Engineers have called for a removal of barriers to unlock the potential of energy storage in the UK. The Institution of Civil Engineers said this could be done through exemption from balancing charges, reclassification of licences and modification of Feed in Tariffs. University of Oxford deputy director of energy research Philipp Grünewald – and co-author of ICE’s recent ‘Electricity Storage: Realising the Potential’ report – told MPs that electricity storage should be part of a “systems” approach to Britain’s energy infrastructure, where different parts of the network work together to deliver secure, affordable and low carbon energy. But he added: “Outdated regulation and lack of market signals are hampering innovative solutions”. Grünewald, who acts as the ICE’s electricity expert, was giving evidence to the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee on the benefits of applying electricity storage to the electricity grid, as means of decarbonising the UK’s network infrastructure.
New Civil Engineer 13th Jan 2016 read more »
