Hinkley
Problems with a reactor in northern France have triggered deep concern in the British government about the future of the UK’s first new nuclear power station for 20 years at Hinkley Point in Somerset. EDF Energy, the French state-owned company behind Hinkley, has suffered a five-year delay and escalating costs at its flagship Flamanville project in Normandy. The £7bn French scheme — designed to showcase new atomic technology — is based on an “EPR” European pressurised reactor, the same model that will be used in Hinkley. Further concerns mounted last week when a leaked report from France’s nuclear safety watchdog highlighted faults in Flamanville’s cooling system. That followed a warning in April by the French Nuclear Safety Regulator that there was an excessive amount of carbon in the steel of the reactor vessel. EDF’s struggles in France have prompted worries at a senior level of the Treasury about the £24bn Hinkley scheme. “I think there are serious questions about the technology,” said one Treasury figure. “Only if that can be fixed is there a desire to go ahead with it . . . on balance.” Senior officials have discussed whether to “start from scratch” with a different, more established reactor technology from elsewhere. Talks between the government, EDF and its two Chinese partners over a final financing package were supposed to be completed by March but have dragged on. Now officials and executives are working towards a fresh deadline of October, when China’s President Xi Jinping has a state visit to Britain. Before then, however, the Treasury must complete a review of Hinkley by its “major projects authority”. While officials expect it to get the green light, one said “it would be unwise to predict either way”. There are growing suspicions in Westminster and within the industry that the Treasury has been dragging its heels over supporting the project. One source close to EDF said he believed there had been “briefings from people at the Treasury” against the deal. Some civil servants believe the government struck an overgenerous “strike price” to buy energy from Hinkley’s two reactors for 35 years. “I think Treasury officials would not be disappointed if Hinkley never happened,” said one Whitehall source. “They have been foot-dragging for at least a year.” One Tory figure said: “I think the Treasury don’t really want that deal to work.” Jonathan Reynolds, shadow climate change minister, wrote on Sunday to Amber Rudd, the new energy secretary saying: “I am asking you today to admit the project will not proceed and inform parliament what your alternative energy strategy will be.”
FT 14th June 2015 read more »
Areva
Areva’s financial situation is worrying, the head of France’s ASN nuclear watchdog said on Thursday, urging the loss-making nuclear company and utility EDF to wrap up a rescue plan for Areva as soon as possible. The French government last week approved EDF’s plan to take a majority stake in Areva’s nuclear reactor business and gave the two state-owned companies a month to do a deal. “Areva’s current financial situation, it could get better, (it) can be considered as preoccupying in terms of safety,” ASN Director Pierre-Franck Chevet told Reuters in an interview.
Reuters 11th June 2015 read more »
Energy Supplies
Wind, solar and other types of renewable power will overtake coal to become the world’s top source of electricity in just 15 years if the pledges countries are making for a global climate change deal this year are met.The striking finding by the International Energy Agency shows renewable power could soar from just over a fifth of global electricity generation today to nearly a third by 2030 — a bigger share than either coal, gas or nuclear plants.
FT 15th June 2015 read more »
If there is an energy transition away from fossil fuels under way, it has so far moved painfully slowly. The share of renewables and nuclear power in the world’s energy mix rose to a new high of 13.7 per cent last year, according to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy. That might sound encouraging, until you consider that it was 13.1 per cent in 1995. The projection from the International Energy Agency that by 2030 renewable energy could become the world’s largest source of electricity is a sign of its potential, but the slow pace of the shift away from fossil fuels is evidence of their compelling advantages in terms of cost and convenience.
FT 14th June 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
The UK must seize the window of opportunity that post-election political stability is presenting, in order to reconcile its contradictory energy objectives and reboot the attractiveness of its renewable energy market. The UK has remained in eighth place in the latest Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) published by EY – its lowest level in 12 years, despite an end to pre-election uncertainty. The attractiveness of the UK’s renewables sector remains marred by conflicting messages around its role in the country’s future energy mix, according to the report.
Scottish Energy News 15th June 2015 read more »
Japan
Fiona Hyslop, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Culture Europe and External Affairs, will visit Japan later this month in a bid to capitalise on its appetite for renewable energy.
Daily Business 15th June 2015 read more »
Iran
There are mounting fears that a deepening power struggle in Tehran over the succession for the powerful position of Supreme Leader could derail attempts to negotiate a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme. Western diplomats involved in the negotiations believe the increasingly frail health of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the regime’s current Supreme Leader, has prompted a fierce power struggle between rival contenders as they jostle for the succession.
Telegraph 14th June 2015 read more »
Iran will resist efforts to compromise its nuclear and military secrets as part of talks on the nation’s atomic activities, President Hassan Rouhani said. A nuclear accord “is within reach” provided the six countries with which Iran is negotiating make no “excessive demands,” the moderate cleric said Saturday at a press conference in Tehran. The extent to which inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency will be free to roam inside Iran is a sticking point for the talks.
Energy Voice 15th June 2015 read more »
At a huge demonstration on Saturday (13 June) in Paris, with the participation of thousands of loud cheering people, the National Council of Resistance of Iran welcomed hundreds of guest speakers from all over the world. In a very emotional speech, Maryam Rajavi, the charismatic leader of the National Council, warned the world against the agreement on controlling the Iranian nuclear programme which, she claimed, would have only one goal – the development of atomic weapons.
EU Reporter 14th June 2015 read more »
China
The US is infuriated after China tested its supersonic nuclear delivery vehicle amid ongoing territorial tensions in the South China Sea. The Chinese defence ministry has officially announced the glide vehicle, dubbed as Wu-14, was tested on Sunday – the fourth such test in 18 months. Experts believe Wu-14 is a hypersonic cutting-edge technology vehicle capable of carrying conventional nuclear warheads by cruising and touching the edge of space.
IB Times 14th June 2015 read more »
Renewables – Geothermal
The Scottish Government’s Geothermal Energy Challenge Fund has awarded almost quarter of a million pounds to five feasibility projects to investigate how the thermal energy in the ground can be used to heat homes and businesses. A total of £234,000 has been awarded to projects targeting sites in Fife, West Lothian, North Lanarkshire and Aberdeenshire that will explore the technical feasibility, economic viability and environmental sustainability of the emerging technology. The awards are the first support for geothermal projects in Scotland following a 2012-2013 study which identified significant potential for geothermal heat as a renewable heat source. Heat is estimated to account for over half of Scotland’s total energy use and responsible for nearly half of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions. The following projects are a potentially vital link in demonstrating how geothermal energy could cut the estimated £2.6 billion a year spent on heating by householders and the non-domestic sector.
Scottish Energy News 15th June 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
The newly-established Solar Trade Association Scotland (STAS) has welcomed the Scottish Government’s new plan to de-carbonise the country’s heat system. The Solar Trade Association Scotland represents both solar thermal and solar PV companies in Scotland. The group was set up in March 2015 and is working with the Scottish Government to increase solar deployment in Scotland.
Scottish Energy News 15th June 2015 read more »
Renewables – onshore wind
RSPB Scotland has voiced ‘grave concerns’ for the fate of some special breeding birds if a contentious wind farm planned for the heart of the Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland gets the green light. A public local inquiry has been held to scrutinise an application by energy giant Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), which wants to build a 39 turbine wind farm at Strathy South.
Scottish Energy News 15th June 2015 read more »
Renewables – tidal
A £300m contract with a Chinese company to build a sea wall for the government’s flagship renewable energy project at Swansea Bay has been called into question amid allegations that it may have been awarded improperly. Lawyers for the tidal lagoon scheme’s promoter are reviewing a challenge understood to have come from Belgian contractors who were shortlisted but lost out to China Harbour Engineering Company, an arm of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC). The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) confirmed on Sunday that it was aware of claims about the agreement. The energy secretary, Amber Rudd, gave permission last week for the £1bn project to provide power for 150,000 homes, in what the government hopes will be the first of a string of such projects around the coastline.
Guardian 15th June 2015 read more »
CCS
Carbon capture and storage too little, too late, too expensive. Carbon capture and storage is one of the key elements in the various plans for keeping total emissions within safe limits. Different projections give slightly different numbers but the broad consensus is that the process of sequestration – taking the carbon out of hydrocarbons before they are burnt and then burying it – should account for between a sixth and a fifth of the net reduction needed by 2050 if we are to keep global warming to 2C or less. If CCS doesn’t happen on the scale required, either the level of emissions and the risks of climate change will be higher or some other solution must be found. Sir David King, the former UK government chief scientist, puts it more dramatically: “CCS is the only hope for mankind”.
FT 13th June 2015 read more »
Climate
The world needs a “peaceful divorce” between economic growth and the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, one of the world’s leading energy economists has said – but this will only happen if a crunch climate conference in December sends a strong signal that governments are serious about tackling global warming. Fatih Birol, incoming executive director of the International Energy Agency, said the UN conference in Paris would be “the last chance to put the energy sector on the right course”.
Guardian 15th June 2015 read more »
