Hinkley
THE contract for building the new nuclear power station in Somerset might not be valid, according to a legal academic. Former Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth, a lecturer at Cambridge, said the deal with EDF over Hinkley Point C, could not be valid under EU law. Mr Howarth claims the contract that fixes a price for the energy if the scheme goes ahead, could be seen as an ‘unjustifiable subsidy’.
This is the West Country 12th May 2014 read more »
When I asked him yesterday during a panel about his department’s on-going assessment the UK’s 35-year multi-billion so far tender-free subsidy offer for two (and potentially up to 12) new nuclear power plants (regarded by many as a test case for the future – or not – of Europe’s internal energy market), Gert-Jan Koopman (pictured) EC’s deputy director general for competition and in charge of state aid control, managed to drop the ball on several important points of law.
Mark Johnston 14th May 2014 read more »
Bradwell
Last-ditch efforts are being made to stop a new form of nuclear waste being pumped into the Blackwater estuary at Bradwell. From Thursday waste from Fuel Element Debris (FED) treatment is due to be released into the river on each high tide for 18 months. The process involves the ends of fuel rods used in nuclear power station reactors being dissolved in acid to bring them within safe levels of radioactivity and then releasing the waste into waterways. The Bradwell Against New Nuclear Group and supporters have launched 11th hour legal challenges and made last pleas to the authorities, including site operators Magnox and regulators the Environment Agency (EA) to halt the process. It is concerned about the impact the waste could have on the environment, including Mersea oysterbeds, and also those who use Bradwell Marina who BANNG say could be sailing or swimming in nuclear debris.
East Anglian Daily Times 13th May 2014 read more »
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Magnox are proposing to start radioactive discharges at the old Bradwell nuclear power station into the Blackwater Estuary and into the atmosphere, once a day for 18 months. THESE DISCHARGES ARE IMMINENT. The discharges will result from a new, untested and accelerated process to dissolve fuel element debris (FED), which is an intermediate-level radioactive waste, in order to reduce its volume. This is unnecessary as there are other ways of storing this waste. BANNG considers these discharges are an offence to the environment. Many serious issues have been raised by this proposal and they have not been sufficiently addressed by the agencies. BANNG has asked the NDA and Magnox to halt the discharges and for an independent assessment of the impacts to be undertaken. 12 years after the cessation of nuclear operations at Bradwell and with decommissioning, the communities of the Blackwater expected that the days of radioactive discharges into their environment were over. Please sign the petition.
Go Petition 8th May 2014 read more »
Sellafield
Sellafield has pledged to recruit 10% more women by 2020. The nuclear plant is backing a national campaign to encourage more women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths. It’s part of the ‘Your Life’ campaign launched by the chancellor George Osborne. Sellafield Ltd has made three pledges to build upon the various education and training schemes they already have in place.
ITV Border 14th May 2014 read more »
Radwaste
A serious accident in February at the United States’ only deep-storage repository for nuclear waste might never have happened had the government not disbanded a key independent scientific body charged with oversight of the safety of the facility. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), carved out of a salt bed 655 metres below the desert near Carlsbad in New Mexico, is run by the Department of Energy (DOE) and stores low- and medium-level military nuclear waste, containing long-lived, man-made elements such as plutonium and americium. But there are politically controversial plans to store far hotter high-level waste at the site. Nuclear-waste experts say that the accident — in which a container is thought to have ruptured or exploded — along with management errors and a lack of oversight at WIPP, highlight the need for an independent risk assessment of any proposed expansion.
Nature 13th May 2014 read more »
Energy Policy
Will the UK’s energy system in 2030 be dominated by gas, coal with carbon capture and storage or many more solar parks and windfarms? Environment ministers from across the EU will hold talks tomorrow that will begin to answer those questions. They are due to discuss the EU’s 2030 climate and energy package. This will shape energy investment in the UK for the next 15 years and define the EU’s negotiating position at UN talks due to agree a global climate deal in 2015. The UK’s position has evolved radically since January. At first it said it wanted a more ambitious emissions reduction target of 50 per cent and was bitterly opposed to any renewable energy targets. Ministers say they want the market to decide on the cheapest way to cut carbon. Then, in March, the UK relented and said it could support a renewables target as long as it wasn’t binding on member states. The compromise was part of a deal reached among 13 member including the UK, Germany and France. This compromise saw the likes of Germany drop their support for renewable energy targets that are binding on each member state. Member states from the eastern part of the EU on the other hand are much more concerned by costs and the threat to their energy security posed by the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Carbon Brief 13th May 2014 read more »
Things are stirring in the gas capacity market. Just last week, Centrica announced that it is to sell three of its largest combined cycle gas power stations, totalling 2.7 GW of capacity. Instead it will concentrate on investing in ‘smaller, more flexible’ power stations. Cornwall Energy, in their ever perceptive ‘Energy Spectrum’, speculate that, among other things, the capacity market auctions may be beginning to look a little lop-sided; existing power producers are disadvantaged by accumulated losses on plant, whilst new entrants can be ‘neutral’ on losses.
Alan Whitehead’s Blog 13th May 2014 read more »
Energy Costs
The new chief executive of Ofgem was accused of “flip-flopping” in his first public appearance before MPs over the profit margins that energy groups make from households. Dermot Nolan initially told the energy and climate change committee that margins made by the Big Six were too high – before saying the opposite. He then asked for his earlier statement to be withdrawn. The confusion undermined his promise to take a more aggressive stance against the industry. When Mr Nolan arrived at Ofgem in March from its counterpart in Ireland he recommended that the competition and markets authority carry out the first full-scale investigation of the industry after claiming that consumers were being overcharged. Ian Lavery, a Labour member of the committee, pointed to Ofgem’s figures showing that energy suppliers made an estimated £101 annual profit, or a 7.5 per cent margin , per consumer, compared with £39 a year ago.
Times 14th May 2014 read more »
Areva
Shares of state-controlled nuclear group Areva fell nearly four percent after France’s top public auditor criticised the company’s business model and its and former management. The “Cour des Comptes” gave a withering review of the management of Areva’s former chief, Anne Lauvergeon, in a report focused on the 2006-2012 period. The report, published by French daily Les Echos late on Monday, criticised Areva’s 2007 acquisition of uranium mine UraMin, on which it had to write down 1.9 billion euros; a 3 billion euro loss due to delays and cost overruns on a reactor in Finland; and Lauvergeon’s exit deal when she left Areva in June 2011, which it described as excessive. The report also questioned Areva’s one-stop-shop business model. Lauvergeon built Areva into an integrated nuclear group that offers a full range of nuclear activities from uranium mining, enrichment and nuclear fuel to building and servicing reactors and recycling spent fuel. “The integrated model is built on the idea of synergy between fundamentally different but complementary activities. In reality, this notion is not as clear as it seems,” it said. Other nuclear groups, such as Mitsubishi Heavy, Toshiba Corp’s Westinghouse, GE Hitachi , and Korea’s Kepco, focus on building reactors and are not involved in mining, fuel or recycling.
Reuters 13th May 2014 read more »
Germany
On Sunday, Germany’s impressive streak of renewable energy milestones continued, with renewable energy generation surging to a record portion — nearly 75 percent — of the country’s overall energy demand by midday. With wind and solar in particular filling such a huge portion of the country’s power demand, electricity prices actually dipped into the negative for much of the afternoon, according to Renewables International.
Climate Progress 13th May 2014 read more »
France
France’s neo-colbertist tradition and the government’s hands-on approach to economic subjects have long favoured powerful national corporate champions. And Economics Minister Arnaud Montebourg’s decisions and policies have really fit that tradition. The French just seem more eager than other European countries, for example, to prevent their corporate champions from being taken over by foreign firms. France still has more major corporate headquarters than European average. “French companies are not prey”, Arnaud Montebourg likes to repeat, which is why the French government is adamant that Alstom reject General Electric’s bid to acquire the company’s power and grid divisions for €13.5 billion.
Rude Baguette 13th May 2014 read more »
US
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has prepared a priority list of 21 nuclear power plant sites in the central and eastern US to carry out in-depth earthquake risk analysis. The commission has reviewed updated earthquake hazard information filed by 60 nuclear reactor sites in the US as part of the its implementation of lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. The submissions showed the plants, which have substantial safety margin above their designs’ anticipated hazards, are safe for continued operation while more work is done. With limited technical expertise available to the industry, the NRC has set two priority lists for the completion of follow-on work to carry out detailed risk analysis based on the re-evaluations.
Energy Business Review 14th May 2014 read more »
Florida Governor Rick Scott and members of the Cabinet on Tuesday approved plans by the state’s largest electric company to add two nuclear reactors to a plant in the Miami area, despite an outcry by environmentalists and some surrounding communities.Florida Power & Light Co, a unit of NextEra Energy Inc, wants to add two new 1,100-megawatt units to its vast Turkey Point power complex near the city of Homestead.
Reuters 13th May 2014 read more »
Renewables
The data underpinning the European Commission’s assessments of possible energy and climate policies could be out of date according to an analysis from research consultants Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. This is particularly problematic in the case of solar photovoltaics (PV), which has seen costs drastically fall in the past few years.
Energy desk 13th May 2014 read more »
Business Green 13th May 2014 read more »
Proposals to maintain the growing momentum behind renewable electricity investment in the UK, while continuing to deliver value for money for consumers, have been unveiled today. Since 2010 the UK’s renewable electricity capacity has doubled; in the same period, over £34 billion of private sector investment has been announced, with the potential to support almost 37,000 jobs. What’s more, the scale of growth in the sector has meant that the cost of some renewable technologies, such as onshore wind and solar power, has fallen. Today’s proposals are about ensuring the right balance of support for renewables and a smooth transition to the Government’s new Contracts for Difference, securing the further investment we need to provide clean, green and secure energy, whilst continuing to deliver value for money for energy bill-payers.
DECC 13th May 2014 read more »
Renewables – solar
Government confirms drastic reforms to solar subsidy regime, as fears mount over impact of solar farm development on clean energy budget. Large scale solar farms would no longer receive subsidies through the Renewables Obligation (RO) regime from April 2015, under controversial plans proposed by the government today. The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has this morning officially launched a review of solar subsidies, first revealed by BusinessGreen, confirming plans to cut support for solar farms while improving the support regime for rooftop installations and community-owned projects.
Business Green 13th May 2014 read more »
Large-scale solar farms will no longer receive financial support through the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme as of next April, under new proposals put forward by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) earlier today (13 May). In a shock political U-turn, DECC this morning officially launched a review of solar subsidies, confirming plans to close the RO scheme to 5MW+ solar farm applications.
Edie 13th May 2014 read more »
The Government has been accused of having ‘an unjustified bias against solar and decentralised energy’ after revealing controversial plans to cut financial support for solar farms. Paul Barwell, chief executive of the STA, said: “The costs of solar power have kept on falling, in large part thanks to the growth and learning in our successful UK industry. We had forecast solar could be cheaper than onshore wind by 2018, but for this to happen we needed stable policy sustaining a high-volume market. The Government is actually moving to slow down solar’s cost reductions towards grid parity. “The industry will be alarmed by these proposals and surprised to be singled out for harsh treatment. It does look like the Government is seeking to define the energy mix and hiding behind the false excuse of ‘budget management’. Seb Berry, Solarcentury’s head of public affairs, said: “Today’s announcement is unnecessary and totally at odds with the government’s desire to reduce the cost to energy bill payers of delivering the 2020 renewable energy target. “Following close behind recent unhelpful media coverage of onshore wind policy, this policy proposal will undermine investor confidence in the entire UK renewable energy sector, by removing at a stroke the short and medium-term policy certainty required for major project investments. It is very surprising that such a deeply damaging policy proposal has been cleared by the Treasury.
Edie 13th May 2014 read more »
It will offer scant consolation to those solar developers facing the third major subsidy review in as many years, but any industry executive looking for a silver lining might reflect on the fact the latest proposed changes are a direct result of the sector’s staggering success. The drastic reduction in the cost of solar technologies – by some industry estimates solar farm costs have fallen over 30 per cent in two years – coupled with the breakneck speed with which solar panels can be installed presents a unique challenge to policymakers. A challenge Whitehall is still yet to get to grips with.
Business Green 13th May 2014 read more »
Ministers’ compulsive tinkering on solar will damage UK’s energy security. “Solar is hugely popular in the UK, costs are falling faster than for any other energy source, and the latest technology is on track to beat nuclear on price. Sowing uncertainty for a key source of clean, homegrown energy, as ministers are doing, makes no economic, political, or strategic sense. “Far from hitting the big energy companies this compulsive policy tinkering sucks confidence out of independent generation and leaves the future of community solar projects up in the air – yet independent producers are our best hope to challenge the big six’s stranglehold on the market.
Greenpeace 13th May 2014 read more »
The government has unveiled proposals to limit the subsidies paid to large solar farms from next April. Owners of installations bigger than 5 megawatts (MW) will have to compete with other renewables for financing. The Department of Energy & Climate Change (Decc) says it wants to encourage the development of smaller scale and community energy production. Campaigners have condemned the move, saying it will undermine investor confidence in the renewable sector.
BBC 13th May 2014 read more »
Amid the bad news for big solar installations, there were crumbs of comfort for smaller scale renewables. Community solar energy projects, with people clubbing together to put up panels in their local area, will be allowed to double their size, from 5MW to 10MW, and people who choose to put solar panels on their roofs can expect a bigger share of the subsidy pot than farmers and other large property owners who choose ground-mounted models.
Guardian 13th May 2014 read more »
Subsidies for large solar farms are to be scrapped in what the industry described as a crippling blow after ministers said the projects were being built so quickly they could become unaffordable. The energy department unveiled plans to close off funding for large farms, which have provoked protests in some parts of the countryside, under its Renewable Obligation scheme from April next year – nearly two years earlier than expected. Companies building big solar projects will still be eligible for subsidies under a new scheme that offers long-term contracts for power generators. But the solar companies will have to compete with other renewable energy technologies, such as wind power, to win contracts. Some say it will be much harder for them to operate as a result.
FT 13th May 2014 read more »
Leonie Greene, head of external affairs for the Solar Trade Association, said the industry was “dismayed” at the proposals. She said that the replacement subsidy scheme – so-called ‘contracts for difference’ (CfD) – simply “doesn’t work for solar”. The new scheme will have a capped budget and onshore wind and solar farm projects will be forced to compete with each other in reverse auctions to win s ubsidy contracts. Ms Greene said that, on current costs, solar farms “can’t compete with onshore wind”. The uncertainty in the auction process also made solar farm development too risky for the small businesses who typically build them. “Unless we can get major amendments to CfDs and fair treatment, they [large-scale solar farms] won’t get built,” she said.
Telegraph 13th May 2014 read more »
Renewables – wind
The percentage of onshore windfarms being rejected rose dramatically in the UK last year, leading the renewable energy trade body to accuse the Conservative party of “heavy-handed intervention” in the planning process. Last summer, Eric Pickles urged planners to give greater weight to local concerns over windfarm applications, saying “current planning decisions on onshore wind are not always reflecting a locally led planning system”. The secretary of state for communities and local government has also taken 35 windfarm planning appeals out of the hands of the planning inspectorate since last June, and has so far refused eight and approved two, with the remaining applications awaiting judgment. Figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) on Tuesday show a surge in both approvals and rejections for windfarms in 2013, but the percentage of all windfarms rejected jumped from 25-29% over the previous four years to 41%. A record 436 windfarms were approved and 310 rejected approved in 2013, up from 105 and 38, respectively, in 2009.
Guardian 13th May 2014 read more »
Energy Storage
Industry report says adding 2GW or more of new storage capacity by 2020 would balance the network, cut carbon, and boost exports. Despite National Grid warning that only half of the government’s target of delivering 20GW of solar capacity by the end of the decade is achievable without significant investment in storage technology, a new report finds the UK is “falling behind” the rest of the world in deploying electricity storage systems.
Business Green 13th May 2014 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Letter Trewin Restorick: The idea that Government energy policy is incoherent at best and non-existent at worst is not a new one. The cheapest and most effective way to reduce costs and pollution is not to waste energy in the first place, but government has been sluggish in encouraging greater energy efficiency. Our research has found that government could help cut household bills and make instant energy savings through simple initiatives such as a scrappage scheme for old, inefficient appliances or tax credits for the purchase of new ones. Most of Europe takes this approach but our government continues to lag behind.
Times 13th May 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The Government’s drive for fracking is losing the Tories thousands of votes, George Osborne’s father-in-law has said, launching a withering attack on ministers’ attempts to “bribe and cajole” rural communities. Lord Howell of Guildford, the former Tory energy secretary, said the Coalition’s strategy for shale gas was “seriously flawed” and could prove “extremely dangerous politically”. In article for the Journal of Energy Security, the peer, who caused controversy last summer by suggesting fracking should take place in “desolate” parts of the north, warned: “Every time ministers open their mouths to claim that fracking must start everywhere around Britain, and not just in carefully selected and remote (derelict) areas, they lose thousands of Tory votes.” His comments come as ministers prepare to offer up vast swathes of Britain to energy companies to explore for shale gas and oil, which they have suggested could lower household energy bills. They are also preparing to publish a study by the British Geological Survey showing large quantities of shale oil beneath the Tory heartlands of southern England. Ministers have backed energy company attempts to win support of local communities by offering them £100,000 for every well that is fracked, and a one per cent share of revenues.
Telegraph 13th May 2014 read more »
