Hinkley
The main construction work on EDF’s £10bn Hinkley Point nuclear power station is not now expected to start until mid-2015, some 18 months later than currently scheduled, Building understands. The main £2bn programme of civils work on EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, to be undertaken by Laing O’Rourke and Bouygues, is currently scheduled to begin in January 2014. However, Building understands Dean and Dyball, a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty, which is set to build a crucial £50m temporary jetty for the project – one of the first packages to go onsite – has now been told to not to expect to start work on the jetty project until the end of the third quarter of 2014. According to EDF’s most recent phasing timetable, published in July 2012, the main civils work is not expected to start until 9 months after the construction of the temporary jetty. That means the start date for the main civils work is now unlikely to be until around mid-2015, and Building understands that contractors on the project are now working to his delayed timetable. A spokesman for EDF said: “We’ve always said that we would be clearer on timings once we reach a final investment decision and that is still the case.”
Building 14th Oct 2013 read more »
UK companies are set to miss out on the majority of specialist contracts to build the £14bn nuclear power station at Hinkley in Somerset because of a dearth of hi-tech engineering skills in the country, according to the plant’s state-backed French developer, EDF Energy. An announcement is expected imminently on the result of long-running negotiations between EDF and the government over the price consumers will pay to subsidise electricity generated by the new reactors, as well as details of Chinese investment in the Hinkley project. While UK consumers will ultimately foot the bill for building the first nuclear facility in almost 20 years, most of the available contracts could be beyond UK suppliers which are struggling to meet the complex safety and quality standards of the nuclear industry, according to Ken Owen, commercial director for nuclear new build at EDF Energy.
Guardian 14th Oct 2013 read more »
As the smoke of briefings from the government PR machine clears, the shape of the deal to secure the development of the new nuclear station at Hinkley Point in Somerset is becoming clearer. As mere consumers we are not allowed to know the full facts – that privilege is given, it seems, only to the companies involved and the French and Chinese governments. But we can piece the story together. The deal sets a price of £90-92 per MWhr – twice the current wholesale price for 35 years – regardless of any technical advances which might offer lower prices from other sources. EDF and Areva will operate the plant but the burden on their balance sheets (and on the finances of the French Government which owns them) will be offset by investment from China. In return, the local Chinese firm has been offered a half-promise that at some undefined date they too could be an operator of nuclear stations in Britain. It is tough to define clean winners. EDF has won the arm-wrestling contest on the price but must now be aware that the whole future of the French nuclear export business is on the line. Another failure like those at Flamanville in France or Olkiluoto in Finland, both of which are over budget and behind schedule, would mark the end of new nuclear development outside state-dominated economies such as Russia and China. Within EDF there remains a serious concern about the EPR technology, and a core of people who see nuclear as yesterday’s technology. Hinkley will settle who is right.
FT 14th Oct 2013 read more »
The U.K. is “extremely close” to announcing a deal with Electricite de France SA to build Britain’s first nuclear power station since 1995, Energy Secretary Ed Davey said. The agreement may be announced as soon as this week after two or three remaining issues are resolved, said a government official briefed on the talks, who didn’t want to be identified before negotiations are completed. Paris-based EDF would build two reactors at Hinkley Point in southwest England at an estimated cost of 14 billion pounds ($22 billion). “We’re extremely close for a deal with EDF,” Davey said in a BBC Television interview yesterday. “If and when we get that deal I’ll announce it to parliament, and I think I’ll be able to show it’s extremely good value for money for customers.”
Bloomberg 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Energy minister Ed Davey says it’s “impossible” for politicians to stop consumer energy bills going up because more than half of the costs are beyond his control. Is he right? So the picture isn’t simple. But while media commentary largely focuses on the cost of ‘green’ measures, it’s clear that Davey’s right – at least in the short term a good chunk of consumer bills are beyond political control, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to pretend they aren’t.
Carbon Brief 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Former Liberal Democrat energy secretary Chris Huhne has accused George Osborne of “utter hypocrisy” over green levies on energy bills, saying the chancellor himself added an unnecessary green tax simply to raise revenue. Asked about green taxes making energy bills unaffordable for ordinary people on the BBC’s Sunday Politics show, Huhne said: “That is nonsense coming from people like George Osborne who ought to know better. In fact one of the utter hypocrisies of this is that the one person in the government who has actually added green taxes was George Osborne with the carbon price floor, which is adding about £5 a year to energy bills right now.”
Guardian 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Policies to promote low-carbon energy include a guaranteed “strike price”, expected to be announced within days, to support EDF’s proposed new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset – at double the market price. The impact of such policies has risen up the political agenda amid public concern over rising utility bills. Green policies currently account for only a small part of consumer costs – typically less than 10 per cent of average household energy bills. But that proportion is set to rise steeply, according to the government’s own forecasts. Measures to support green power and increase energy efficiency will add 33 per cent to the price of electricity by 2020 and 41 per cent by 2030, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
FT 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Gas and electricity users are paying to tackle fuel poverty as much as to subsidise renewables. Blue and yellow are supposed to make green when you mix them – but coalition is not a paint palette. The Tories and Liberal Democrats, who once promised to run the “greenest government ever”, are increasingly clashing over their environmental commitments. The balance between keeping energy bills down and tackling climate change is promising to be the big battle in Whitehall between now and the general election. Ed Miliband has a thrown a Jackson Pollock-style paintball at the Government with his promise to freeze energy prices if Labour wins. Last week’s announcement by SSE of an 8.2 per cent rise in domestic bills will be matched or raised by all the other big energy companies over the next few weeks, ensuring that the “cost of living” is a defining issue between now and 2015. The Tories’ former catchphrase “vote blue, go green” has been sacrificed on the altar of austerity — these days the mantra being tried by the Treasury is “saving the planet shouldn’t cost the earth”. For the Lib Dems, who cannot afford to alienate any more of their traditional supporters, greenery is a red line. A year ago Mr Cameron sided with Nick Clegg against the Treasury to secure a deal on environmental charges ahead of publication of the Energy Bill. Now the Prime Minister is backing his Chancellor as he senses voters feeling the squeeze. Only 2 per cent of energy bills are made up of “green taxes” that subsidise renewable energy and only 0.71 per cent (£9 a year for the average household) supports onshore windfarms. A far greater proportion — 5 per cent of each bill – is spent on measures to help poor and elderly people who the Government thinks may struggle to pay their bills. The “warm homes discount” accounts for 1 per cent of bills, giving a £135 reduction to eligible households, which is subsidised by everybody else. Other payments for those in fuel poverty, to help them improve energy efficiency in their homes, account for another 4 per cent.
Times 15th Oct 2013 read more »
THE head of the power company at the centre of a row over its rising bills has questioned the government’s carbon-tax policy for green energy. Alistair Phillips-Davies, the chief executive of SSE, has queried whether ministers should be thinking more about price hikes facing consumers than the introduction of green levies. SSE says homeowners will see their power bills rise by £26 a year as a result of green energy tax policies. Last week, the company found itself at the centre of a row after announcing an inflation-busting rise in bills. It said the government’s green levies were part of the reason prices had to go up.
Scotsman 15th Oct 2013 read more »
If the heat being generated by the debate over energy prices could be captured, it would certainly keep a lot of homes warm this winter. Latest to put fuel on the fire is SSE, warning that a green policy initiative is set to add an average of £26 to household bills by 2015. The company is attempting to force public attention back on the government as the villain of the high energy bill piece. That is unsurprising, given the battering that all of the big six firms have taken following Labour leader Ed Miliband’s spotlighting of them by his price cap pledge, and the animosity towards SSE after it announced price rises of 8.2 per cent due next month.
Scotsman 15th Oct 2013 read more »
Energy Supplies
Last week it was reported yet again that the potential deal between the government and EDF for the UK’s first new nuclear plant was near, with a suggestion that a strike price of £93/MWh had been agreed. In the same week DECC put out an updated PV roadmap showing an ambition for up to 20GW of new capacity by 2020, with a new solar strategy due in 2014. These are two very different technologies, operating at different scales that have different implications for the way the UK could develop an affordable, low carbon and secure energy future. Neither PV, nor nuclear, can meet all of our energy needs, but considering technology options in terms of their flexibility, adaptability and resilience provides important insights. In a rapidly changing system it will become increasingly important to take decisions that take account of these characteristics. PV wins hands down over nuclear on these criteria as would many other renewable sources, reflecting the fact that they can be deployed at the macro, meso and micro levels; and are much more likely to enable the system, its operation, and governance to change. Reframing the debate around flexibility, adaptability and resilience could put the UK on a much clearer and realistic path to decarbonisation, security and affordability; something Germany has clearly understood and acted upon.
IGov 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Sizewell
Government officials last night hinted that a multi-billion pound investment could be made in a new generation of nuclear power stations, potentially paving the way for a third plant to be created in Suffolk. Energy secretary Ed Davey said he believes a wave of funding could come from China, Japan and Korea, which would help to secure the UK’s power supply in the future. The announcement comes after a period of deadlock between the government and EDF Energy over the guaranteed price of electricity generated at the firm’s proposed plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset – which has led to specualtion over the future of Sizewell C. But if major investment is pumped into the industry, it is believed it will ease the negotiations and lead to the development in Somerset and, in turn, the creation of Sizewell C, near Leiston.
East Anglian Daily Times 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Springfields
The beginning of the nuclear chain in the UK is at Springfields near Preston. Uranium is ripped out of the ground in far off lands such as Africa, Peru, and even the Grand Canyon. The uranium is brought here by road and rail for Springfields to work their magic The emissions from the birthing of uranium fuel is pumped to the River Ribble, to Clifton Marsh landfill and to the air. The Springfields site boasts that it has “already produced several million fuel elements and provided products and services for over 140 reactors in more than 12 countries”. This activity is set to explode with new build. The operators of Springfields (Toshiba and Westinghouse) have signed a 150 year lease with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Radiation Free Lakeland 14th Oct 2013 read more »
World Nuclear
At least five U.S. nuclear plants have been shuttered this year, the result of runaway expenses and an inability to compete with cheap natural gas produced by the shale boom. So you may not need more reason to think nuclear is going nowhere. But here are five more charts, via a Citi team led by Jason Channell, showing that nuclear is not only on the wane in America, but also around the world.
Business Insider 3rd Oct 2013 read more »
Japan
A series of recent mishaps at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant may be symptomatic of declining worker morale. A major reason for this disturbing trend is the health concerns held by workers who still face high levels of radiation every time they enter the plant.
Asahi Shimbun 14th Oct 2013 read more »
About 40 percent of Japanese nuclear plant equipment exported over the past decade — worth some 51.1 billion yen — failed to go through national government safety inspections, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned. The government conducts safety inspections on nuclear plant equipment that is to be exported only if manufacturers receive loans from the government-affiliated Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), or take out insurance policies from Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, an independent administrative agency. This is in sharp contrast to the requirement that all devices for domestic nuclear power stations be subject to strict government safety inspections. An expert involved in the Japan Atomic Energy Commission’s compilation of a new nuclear power policy outline said the finding highlights insufficiencies in the government’s system to examine nuclear plant equipment for export.
Mainichi 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Vietnam
Japan lacks the administrative system it requires to export nuclear technology to Vietnam despite agreements to export and finance two reactors in the country, after it scrapped the agency in charge last year following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, government officials said Saturday. Although Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sees the export of nuclear technology as one of the pillars of his economic growth strategy, the Japan-Vietnam nuclear cooperation may not proceed as scheduled, they said.
Global Post 12th Oct 2013 read more »
US
AS costs and competition from cheap natural gas force more old nuclear plants to shut down, their owners have a new complaint: the electricity market is rigged against them. For nuclear plants, which cannot vary their production hour by hour, the pricing mechanism is a substantial blow, as is the low value placed on reactors’ ability to produce electricity when needed, as opposed to wind and sun, which produce electricity when nature cooperates. The executives who operate the energy markets say they are not playing favorites among competing forms of production. The markets are designed “to be open to all fuels and all technologies,” said Robert G. Ethier, vice president of market development at ISO-New England, the independent system operator that manages the grid in the six New England states. “We don’t take a position on what’s a good fuel and bad fuel.”
New York Times 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Iran
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned it would be an “historic mistake” if Tuesday’s much-awaited talks in Geneva between Iran and world powers led to an easing of sanctions on Tehran. He also urged the international community to reject Iran’s offer to limit uranium enrichment to 20 per cent.
Independent 14th Oct 2013 read more »
The international community and Iran will start talks over the country’s nuclear programme on Tuesday in a mood of cautious optimism and genuine hope of progress, traits not normally associated with these long-running series of meetings.
Independent 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that a ministerial meeting with the P5+1 countries would be necessary following talks in Geneva over Tehran’s nuclear programme. The talks over the next few days will be between Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and his counterparts from the P5+1 group – the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany. “We want to change the approach of the past six years, which has given no results,” said Mr Zarif. Mr Araqchi did not give any further details but warned that uranium enrichment was still a “red line” for the republic. “We will negotiate about the volume, levels and the methods of enrichment but shipping out the enriched material is a red line for Iran,” he emphasised.
Morning Star 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Iran’s negotiators are expected to offer restrictions on its nuclear programme in return for at least a partial lifting of sanctions, at a new round of talks starting in Geneva on Tuesday, diplomats said.
Guardian 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Iran’s foreign minister said on Monday that he wanted to agree a “roadmap” with foreign negotiators on ending the stand-off over its nuclear programme, but warned that he must have face-to-face contact with his counterparts to seal a deal.
Telegraph 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
We know about risks posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But new information reveals the US dropped bombs on its own soil. And author Eric Schlosser says Trident also has “safety issues”.
Channel4 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Nuclear weapons policy reaches far into our daily global economic, trade and foreign relations, yet for the most part is inaccessible to public scrutiny. This week the EU will discuss the presence of America’s B16s in Europe: an opportunity to open up the debate.
Open Democracy 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Renewables
Renewable, low-carbon energy accounts for an ever-greater share of production. It is helping push wholesale electricity prices down, and could one day lead to big reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. For established utilities, though, this is a disaster. Their gas plants are being shouldered aside by renewable-energy sources. They are losing money on electricity generation. They worry that the growth of solar and wind power is destabilising the grid, and may lead to blackouts or brownouts. And they point out that you cannot run a normal business, in which customers pay for services according to how much they consume, if prices go negative. In short, they argue, the growth of renewable energy is undermining established utilities and replacing them with something less reliable and much more expensive.
Economist 12th Oct 2013 read more »
Mr Davey defended wind farms after it emerged that the number of turbine projects granted planning permission has more than doubled over the last two years. Critics of wind farms say they are inefficient and reliant on public subsidies. Interviewed on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Mr Davey was asked if onshore wind turbines provide value for money. He replied: “Absolutely. They only get paid when they are generating electricity.” Mr Davey defended subsidies for wind farms, saying: “We have to invest in renewable energy to catch up with the rest of Europe.”
Telegraph 13th Oct 2013 read more »
Community Energy
The report from Cornwall Energy and commissioned by Co-operatives UK and The Co-operative Group found issues around complexity and cost to be a major barrier to success for community projects, with connection costs largely being a “postcode lottery” and often disproportionate to the scheme, sometimes costing millions of pounds. To overcome these barriers and realise the UK’s community energy potential it recommends: providing priority grid access to community energy projects; allowing them to pay back their connection costs over time; exemption from wider network upgrade costs; standardised cost assessments, which are then fixed; and improved communications and transparency from electricity grid network operators. Many of these recommendations have already been introduced in Denmark and Germany, which consequently have a much higher proportion of community energy than the UK.
Guardian 14th Oct 2013 read more »
The number of small investors in Britain putting their money into environmental and green energy projects is growing rapidly with the market now valued at almost £500 million, according to a new report. Over one million investments – mainly between £100 and £500 – have helped raise a total of £1.6 billion for businesses that ‘do good’ and offer a financial return in the UK, according to Ethex, the new online exchange for positive investments.
Greenwise Business 14th Oct 2012 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Well-off households have hijacked the household insulation programme by using it to buy new boilers from British Gas at the expense of the taxpayer. Ministers have set aside £125 million of “cashback” to kickstart the Green Deal, allowing households to claim money off the cost of energy efficiency measures under the heavily criticised programme. However, 97 per cent of the 5,733 payments have gone to households replacing their boilers, entitling them to cashback of up to £310. The majority are not having any other work carried out under the Green Deal and are paying upfront for the new boilers. Those buying new boilers far outweigh the 12 households who, as of August, had other measures installed under the Green Deal.
Times 15th Oct 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
A Lancashire dairy farmer has joined forces with Greenpeace to launch a challenge to fracking in England, urging landowners to assert what the charity claims is a legal right to veto drilling underneath their properties. The campaign group said it expected thousands of people to join the “legal block”, so that a series of no-go areas will be set up across England, effectively driving fracking firms out of the country. Andrew Pemberton, who supplies milk to 3,000 households in Lytham on the Lancashire coast, said he had joined the campaign because he would lose his livelihood if the local water became contaminated. The divisive technology of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, has been associated with air and water pollution, radioactive waste and the despoliation of vast tracts of land, as well as methane emissions, in the US, where it was pioneered. Evidence of environmental damage is disputed by many scientists, as well as the fracking industry. The government immediately dismissed Greenpeace’s position, insisting: “This is not a block to shale gas development in the UK.”
Guardian 14th Oct 2013 read more »
A Greenpeace plan to challenge fracking, hydraulic fracturing, could be an inconvenience but will not block efforts to exploit shale gas, the industry said on Monday. The environmental campaign group announced its case in Lancashire, home to some of the UK’s biggest known shale gas reserves, saying it expected thousands of people to join it and create a “patchwork of ‘no-go’ areas for the fracking industry across the country”.
FT 14th Oct 2013 read more »
Times 15th Oct 2013 read more »
