Hinkley
An action alliance of green power suppliers and municipal utilities today filed a lawsuit with the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg against State Aid for the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant (NPP) in the UK. As announced earlier, ten companies in Germany and Austria are taking legal action against a decision of the European Commission last year which approved controversial State Aid. The action alliance is accusing the Commission of making legal and procedural errors. Moreover, the alliance fears that the comprehensive subsidy package for Hinkley Point C, adding up to far more than a hundred billion euros, could together with other proposed NPP projects massively distort the European energy market and create a competitive advantage for hazardous nuclear technology. The statement of claim was filed electronically at the European Court of Justice in the morning. This officially launches proceedings.
Greenpeace Energy 15th July 2015 read more »
A second legal challenge to the UK’s proposed Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset was launched this morning by ten renewable and municipal power suppliers in Germany and Austria, citing grave distortions to European energy markets. Representing the Action Alliance before the Court of Justice of the European Union, is Dr Dörte Fouquet, an expert in subsidy and energy law, attorney and partner at the international law firm Becker Büttner Held. “The Commission did not adequately analyse the far-reaching consequences of its approval of State Aid, nor did it take into account that there was no tendering procedure for Hinkley Point C”, she says. “Moreover, there is no general market failure that would anyway justify such State Aid.” Austria already filed its own complaint on the same issue last week and Luxembourg has announced it will also take legal steps. The German government has so far refused to take legal action against the controversial subsidy decision, but is coming under growing pressure to change its mind. In the last few weeks more than 15,000 people have responded to a call from the Greenpeace Energy to send postcards and sent emails to their Bundestag representatives, and submitted online petitions to the Bundestag’s Committee on Petitions, appealing for Germany to take legal action.
Ecologist 15th July 2015 read more »
A lawsuit against the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power station has been filed by green power suppliers. Greenpeace Energy and nine German and Austrian utilities have made a formal challenge over the plan. It is based on alleged “legal and procedural errors” when state aid was approved for the power plant at Hinkley Point by the European Commission. The alliance also said the subsidy package could give “hazardous nuclear technology” a competitive advantage.
BBC 15th July 2015 read more »
The GMB trade union has called on the UK government to press ahead with the Hinkley Point C power station despite legal challenges and serious technical failures. In this Open Letter, David Elliott, Ian Fairlie, Jonathon Porritt and colleagues tell the union that its members’ interests lie in our renewable future, not the nuclear past.
Ecologist 15th July 2015 read more »
In 2007, at a site near Flamanville in Normandy, construction work began on a new nuclear power station. It was supposed to be finished by 2012, but there were delays – pushing back the completion date to 2017. In April of this year, Areva (the manufacturing company) revealed that an ‘anomaly’ had been discovered in the reactor’s pressure vessel. As reported by Rob Broomby for BBC News this is no minor hiccup There’s a lot more riding on this than one nuclear power station. Flamanville 3 is supposed to be the forerunner for a new generation of reactors designed to replace France’s ageing nuclear ‘fleet’. It is also of the same design as Hinkley Point C – which, if it goes ahead, would be Britain’s first new nuclear power station since Sizewell B. Rob Broomby points out that “the fault in the French reactor is thought to be a construction fault, not an inherent weakness in the design.” But the fact is that every nuclear build is an immensely complicated one-off construction project – and, given the potential for catastrophe, acutely sensitive to error. Flamanville 3 provides an ample demonstration of the technical and economic risks inherent to the whole technology.
Conservative Home 16th July 2015 read more »
Moorside
The UK nuclear new-build developer NuGen has signed a land contract for Moorside in Cumbria to develop three nuclear reactors. The deal was signed with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) following the successful completion of site studies by NuGen, which validated the north and west of the Sellafield complex as being suitable for development. The company has stated it is ‘confident’ the site is suitable for construction of three AP1000 reactors, as all criteria has been satisfied. It is understood Moorside will deliver 7% of the UK’s future electricity needs. The NuGen Board approved the land contract signing at a meeting in Tokyo.
Construction 15th July 2015 read more »
Utility Week 15th July 2015 read more »
Building Design & Construction 15th July 2015 read more »
Construction Enquirer 15th July 2015 read more »
New Civil Engineer 15th July 2015 read more »
GMB welcome Nugen land deal as a positive step forward for new nuclear power station in West Cumbria. It is important that government throws its weight behind the project to build an integrated future for the nuclear industry in West Cumbria says GMB. GMB, the union for nuclear energy workers, welcome the announcement today (14th July) that NuGen, the UK nuclear new-build developer, has signed a land contract for Moorside near Sellafield with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) as the site for a new nuclear power station.
GMB 14th July 2015 read more »
The site of a new £10billion power plant in Britain has been confirmed, creating up to 21,000 jobs. A deal to secure the land needed was completed to pave the way for Europe’s biggest new nuclear project.
Mirror 15th July 2015 read more »
Sellafield
Since the Government confirmed in December 2011 that its preferred management option for the UK’s plutonium stockpile was to convert the ‘asset of zero value’ into Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel for re-use in reactors, further progress on the option has been conspicuous by its absence. Over the intervening years the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) appears to have been concentrating its efforts on the alternative projects submitted by GE Hitachi (PRISM reactor) and Candu Energy (Canmox) – both projects being added to the list of plutonium options as an afterthought in January 2012. Seemingly locked in a technical time-warp for the last three and a half years, the option assessment process has however been woken from its slumbers and reinvigorated in recent days with a press release from French company AREVA. Released on 8th July – under the headline of opening a new office at Sellafield’s satellite Science & Technology Park at Westlakes near Whitehaven – AREVA confirmed its support not only to its ongoing decommissioning and waste management work at Sellafield – but also to the development of what it describes as the AREVA Convert Project. Further reading on this hitherto unknown project reveals that it is geared to converting ‘the nuclear material that is a potential liability (Sellafield’s plutonium) into a valuable fuel to help meet Britain’s low carbon power generation needs’. Despite a request for information submitted by CORE last week, the NDA has not yet felt able to say if or when the AREVA Convert Project had been officially submitted for assessment, or when the next NDA update/progress report on plutonium management options was likely to be published.
CORE 15th July 2015 read more »
Nuclear Transport
The two photographs above were taken by Radiation Free Lakeland within a few minutes of each other. One shows a fully loaded nuclear waste train going to Sellafield and just a couple of minutes later a train with empty flasks going the other way. This was on the morning of a terrible gas explosion in Seascale in a house just feet away from the railway tracks. We happened to be there following a visit with former US nuclear regulator Arnie Gundersen to the proposed Moorside site. This coming Saturday Direct Rail Services will be “celebrating 20 years” of transporting nuclear waste to Sellafield. Radiation Free Lakeland are teaming up with Close Capenhurst Campaign to leaflet and demonstrate against the continued practice of hauling radioactive wastes through our towns and villages. DRS say “This years event will also mark our 20th Anniversary! Bring the family along for a fun day out as we invite you to have a look behind the scenes”.
Radiation Free Lakeland 15th July 2015 read more »
Nuclear People
Former Inverkeithing High pupil Dr Keith Franklin (48), who has been on secondment from the National Nuclear Laboratory to the British Embassy in Tokyo since the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011, received the award for services to UK/Japan relations in the field of nuclear energy. Prior to his move to the Far East, Dr Franklin held the post of business leader in the reactor chemistry and materials area, based at NNL’s Stonehouse office in Gloucestershire. He also spent time in Japan between 1999 and 2001, working for British Nuclear Fuels Limited.
Dunfermline Press 15th July 2015 read more »
Nuclear Police
The annual report and accounts of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority for the financial year 2014/15.
Civil Nuclear Police Authority 15th July 2015 read more »
Office for Nuclear Regulaton.
Annual Plan 2015-6.
ONR 15th July 2015 read more »
ONR Strategy 2015-2020.
ONR 15th July 2015 read more »
Radhealth
Alison Katz is a sociologist and psychologist who worked inside the World Health Organization (WHO) for 18 years. Now a leader within I ndependent WHO, an organization dedicated to revealing the lies and coverups perpetrated by WHO, Alison dissects the history, politics and manipulations of the United Nations agency we’re supposed to be able to trust to safeguard the world’s health – especially in nuclear matters. Special focus on Chernobyl and how the WHO worked to diminish our awareness of this nuclear disaster’s true impact on the world’s health. This is a Nuclear Hotseat Exclusive and an Encore Presentation.
Nuclear Hotseat 14th July 2015 read more »
Nuclear Safety
EDF Energy has completed its Japanese Earthquake Response programme of work to enhance the safety and resilience to its nuclear power stations. The safety programme for the company’s eight nuclear power stations, developed in the aftermath of the Fukushima incident in 2011, included additional training for key technical staff, enhancements to back-up equipment for cooling systems, and emergency command and control facilities. A key part of the work included a new emergency response centre near Sizewell B, which provides robust back-up for the multiple safety systems already in place at the station.
Utility Week 15th July 2015 read more »
Radwaste
It was somewhat surprising to see that DECC’s “Implementing Geological Disposal Annual Report” has been removed from its website apparently because it was “published in error”. However, it was there long enough for us to download a copy.
Cumbria Trust 16th July 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
The UK is likely to see an explosion in the deployment of clean technologies over the next 15 years, but it may still prove insufficient for the country’s carbon emissions and clean energy targets are to be met. That is the conclusion of a wide-ranging report to be published by National Grid later today that explores four future scenarios for the UK energy sector, dubbed Gone Green, Consumer Power, No Progression, and Slow Progression. Each of the scenarios provides some succour for green businesses. For example, under the Gone Green scenario LEDs become the only viable option for light bulbs by 2030, interconnectors make the UK a net exporter of power by the mid-2030s, and over 400 biomethane grid connections are delivered by 2025. The report also predicts that “by 2025/26, output from renewable sources of electricity generation will be comparable to that of conventional power stations”. Crucially, the Slow Progression scenario that appears to most closely mirror the government’s commitment to cost effective decarbonisation also predicts sales of hybrid electric vehicles will hit 50,000 by 2019 and offshore wind capacity will double every five years through to the mid-2020s. And even the No Progression scenario predicts over 13 million smart meters will be deployed by 2025 and solar output will match coal power by the mid 2030s. However, the report also warns only the Gone Green scenario is compatible with meeting all the UK’s legally binding carbon emissions and renewable energy targets. “In the three other scenarios environmental targets are not met on time due to lower prosperity and less green ambition,” the report states.
Business Green 15th July 2015 read more »
The UK hits its decarbonisation targets in only one of four ‘credible future scenarios’ envisioned by the National Grid. The grid operator’s annual Future Energy Trends report lays out four equally likely energy scenarios between now and 2050: Gone Green, Consumer Power, No Progression, and Slow Progression. Only under the Gone Green scenario, which is characterized by long term green-policy certainty and moderate economic growth, does the UK meet its long term emissions targets.
Edie 15th July 2015 read more »
Bloomberg 15th July 2015 read more »
Levy Control Framework
The Government is facing a multi-billion pound black hole in its budget to pay for new clean energy supplies, which could result in rising household electricity bills unless there is a dramatic decline in investment in renewable technologies. Senior Whitehall sources have told The Independent that the Department of Energy and Climate Change has already overspent its budget by £1.5bn to support renewable energy projects over the next five years. But ministers are being warned that unless they increase the budget still further and bring more renewable energy projects on line, the UK will have no hope of hitting its legally binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the mid-2020s. Under the Government’s current projections, the total additional costs added to an average household’s electricity bill to pay for the green schemes are already due to rise from £89-a-year to £188 by 2020. But if ministers continue to pursue official targets with the necessary future investment, this figure will rise significantly. A new analysis by the think-tank Policy Exchange suggests that the current overspend on renewables subsidies alone could add an additional £20, pushing energy policy costs for the average household to nearly £210 per year.
Independent 16th July 2015 read more »
A Whitehall source told the Guardian the projected overspend on renewables had become the single most important problem for the ministry as it tried to balance its books. Sorting this out is a number one priority but it is a dilemma. It really is ‘answers on a postcard’ time,” the source said. Under a £7.6bn-a-year scheme set up by the coalition government, households which generate renewable energy are promised a premium on top of market price for electricity they provide. The subsidy is paid for by a levy on household energy bills which was supposed to be capped. But as the price of oil and gas has declined and the number of renewable installations has grown, civil servants have struggled to keep within the scheme’s budget.
Guardian 16th July 2015 read more »
When David Cameron was a newly elected leader seeking to rebrand the Conservative Party, a decade ago now, one gesture he made to demonstrate his green credentials was to have solar panels installed in his London home. Now it emerges that, though Mr Cameron’s reputation as a green leader has since suffered, some concerted efforts in this area must have been successful, for the budget for renewable energy projects is already overspent by a fifth, or £1.5bn. This opens up an unpalatable choice between loading yet more cost on to household electricity bills, or falling back on increased reliance on fossil fuels that add to the greenhouse effect. The attractive short-term option would be to ignore global warming in pursuit of cheap electricity, but that would be the wrong course due to the incalculable and irreversible damage that man-made global warming threatens to do to our planet. The Government must do what is right, and face the political consequences.
Independent 16th July 2015 read more »
Energy Supplies
The risk of blackouts in Britain this winter is rising as spare capacity in the electricity markets has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, National Grid has warned. Generating capacity will exceed demand at peak periods by only 1.2 per cent this winter. It means supplies are the tightest they have been in around a decade.
Independent 16th July 2015 read more »
Politics
Mhairi Black’s (20 year old SNP MP for Paisley & Renfreshire South) maiden House of
Commons speech. No mention of nuclear but a must-watch.
Channel 4 News 14th July 2015 read more »
World Nuclear
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015 (WNISR) has been released on 15 July 2015 in London, U.K., at the House of Commons at 10h00 local time. The event was hosted by Member of Parliament Paul Flynn and chaired by Walt Patterson, Associate Fellow of Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs). Convening lead author Mycle Schneider, lead author Antony Froggatt and contributing author Steve Thomas presented the key findings of the report. Additional contributing authors of the report include Tadahiro Katsuta of Meiji University in Tokyo (Fukushima Status Report) and Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of the Forum for the Future and former Chair of the UK Sustainability Development Commission.
World Nuclear Report 15th July 2015 read more »
The challenge to select and assess the outstanding events of the year for the release of the July 2015 edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report turned out to be particularly tough: For the first time in 45 years, Japan was without nuclear electricity (and no lights went out) and, indeed, without any operating industrial nuclear facility or even research reactor; AREVA, the self-proclaimed “global leader in nuclear energy”, went technically bankrupt; China, the global leader in new-build, launched a construction site after a 15-month break; in the U.K., concerning the French sponsored new-build project, there are “growing suspicions” that the Treasury “would not be disappointed if Hinkley [Point C] never happened”; the French draft Energy Bill passed the second reading at the French National Assembly stipulating the reduction of the nuclear share from three quarters to about half by 2025; and so on. While this report attempts to provide an overview of essential events of the past year its main aim is to identify and highlight the trends.
World Nuclear Report 15th July 2015 read more »
Japan without nuclear power for a full calendar year for the first time since the first commercial nuclear power plant started up in the country 50 years ago. Nuclear plant construction starts plunge from fifteen in 2010 to three in 2014. 62 reactors under construction—five fewer than a year ago—of which at least three- quarters delayed. In 10 of the 14 building countries all projects are delayed, often by years. Five units have been listed as “under construction” for over 30 years. Share of nuclear power in global electricity mix stable at less than 11% for a third year in a row. AREVA, technically bankrupt, downgraded to “junk” by Standard & Poor’s, sees its share value plunge to a new historic low on 9 July 2015—a value loss of 90 percent since 2007 China, Germany, Japan—three of the world’s four largest economies—plus Brazil, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain, now all generate more electricity from non-hydro renewables than from nuclear power. These eight countries represent more than three billion people or 45 percent of the world’s population. In the UK, electricity output from renewable sources, including hydropower, overtook the output from nuclear. Compared to 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol on climate change was signed, in 2014 there was an additional 694 TWh per year of wind power and 185 TWh of solar photovoltaics—each exceeding nuclear’s additional 147 TWh.
World Nuclear Industry 15th July 2015 read more »
As a long-term and very engaged participant in the nuclear debate, I’ve absorbed each WNISR with careful attention – and huge admiration. The quality of the research and the level of detail is astonishing, and because the same datasets are being updated on an annual basis, it provides the definitive snapshot of an industry that still does its best to keep as much as it possibly can either hidden or deliberately opaque. As someone who needs the facts in the work I do, I couldn’t do without the Report. So I was more than a little delighted when the authors asked me to write the Foreword to this year’s Report – which I have chosen to focus on the whole question of innovation and the relative pace of change within the nuclear industry (lethargic if not glacial, with little if any genuinely transformative developments over 50 years) and within the world of renewables, efficiency and storage (dynamic, fast-moving and subject to a constant ‘churn rate’ that investors are increasingly excited by). The Report itself not only provides a detailed country-by-country analysis of the status of the nuclear industry, but provides insightful updates on different reactor technologies (including some of the latest ‘posterchild’ favourites such as Small Modular Reactors), and includes a powerful report on the continuing aftershocks of the disaster at Fukushima in March 2011. This is an industry that still has massive institutional and lobbying firepower at its disposal, with a vast amount of money to spend persuading politicians, potential investors, commentators and a few gullible greenies that they still have the answers to today’s big questions about energy security, affordability and the need for a dramatic decarbonisation of the entire global economy. But however much money is deployed in pursuit of those propagandistic purposes, the alternative reality on the ground is beginning to look very different. And the nuclear industry is beginning to look increasingly irrelevant.
Johnathon Porritt 15th July 2015 read more »
The impressively resilient hopes that many people still have of a global nuclear renaissance are being trumped by a real-time revolution in efficiency-plus-renewables-plus- storage, delivering more and more solutions on the ground every year. How long will it take before those seemingly inextinguishable hopes in the promise of nuclear will be finally overwhelmed by the delivered realities of an alternative model that gains momentum not just year on year but month by month? From an innovation standpoint, the answer is absolutely clear: it’s already happened. The static, top-heavy, monstrously expensive world of nuclear power has less and less to deploy against today’s increasingly agile, dynamic, cost-effective alternatives. The sole remaining issue is that not everyone sees it that way—as yet.
Johnathon Porritt 15th July 2015 read more »
Renewable energy supplies more electricity than nuclear in countries that account for roughly half the world’s population, a new industry report shows. While global nuclear power generation increased by 2.2 per cent in 2014, solar power increased 38 per cent and wind power was up by a tenth, according to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015.
Engineering & Technology 15th July 2015 read more »
The trend away from nuclear power and fossil fuels and toward clean energy is only accelerating, all across the world. Given how low we began, with clean energy even a few years ago providing only a microscopic amount of our electricity supply, rapid and accelerating growth is absolutely necessary. But the pace of the growth still is stunning. The dinosaurs’ day is coming, and the trend shows that it’s coming sooner than expected.
Green World 15th July 2015 read more »
Supply Chain
A booming engineering and manufacturing company that has its roots in Bulwell has won the chance to seek new business in the nuclear energy market. Nasmyth Metallics Bulwell was born as Bulwell Precision Engineers back in 1956. It now operates as a subsidiary of the globally renowned Nasmyth Group from a state-of-the-art plant at Pinxton. The firm already supplies precision engineering products and services for industries such as aerospace and defence. Now it is ready for new growth after securing Fit For Nuclear (F4N) accreditation following a successful assessment.
Hucknall Dispatch 15th July 2015 read more »
Chernobyl
Cameras set up by an environmental research project in the Ukrainian side of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone reveal that the area is home to a rich diversity of wildlife. The work is led by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and co-funded by NERC, Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Environment Agency and RWM. The overall objective of the Transfer – Exposure – Effects (TREE) project is to help accurate estimation of the risk to wildlife associated with exposure to radioactivity and to develop more realistic safety assessments.
NDA 15th July 2015 read more »
Channel 4 News 15th July 2015 read more »
Emissions Trading Scheme
Some of Europe’s heaviest polluters are in line for €160bn (£112bn) of free carbon permits under a planned restructuring of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), a key weapon in the fight against climate change. The European commission is proposing to reduce the number of free allowances and the companies eligible for them in a move condemned as too harsh by the British steel industry but too weak by green campaigners. Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Union commissioner for climate action and energy, said the balanced initiative would clean up the planet while safeguarding the interests of businesses most at risk from foreign competition.
Guardian 15th July 2015 read more »
Utilities
A new energy supply company is to be launched which aims to cut millions of pounds from bills in some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities. Our Power Energy is the first in the UK to operate on a non-profit distribution basis. It has been founded by 35 organisations including some of Scotland’s largest housing associations. It plans to be selling heat and power to tenants in 200,000 homes across Scotland by 2020. The consortium expects to save its members up to 10% on their household utility bills, compared with standard commercial tariffs.
BBC 16th July 2015 read more »
Japan
A Japanese power company received permission Wednesday to restart a nuclear reactor, which would bring to five the number of reactors given the go-ahead to resume operations under updated regulations following the country’s 2011 atomic accident. The Nuclear Regulation Authority finalized the decision to allow Shikoku Electric Power Co to operate Reactor 3 at its Ikata plant in Ehime prefecture, 750 kilometres south-west of Tokyo. The move comes after the reactor cleared a major hurdle toward resumption in May. It must still obtain local approvals and complete the remaining procedures for regulatory review before it is allowed to restart the reactor. Kyushu Electric Power Co is set to restart a reactor at the Sendai plant in mid-August, the first resumption of a nuclear reactor under the updated regulations. (another reactor at Senda has cleared regulatory screening). Two reactors at the Takahama plant in Fukui prefecture also cleared the regulators’ screening in February. However, an April court injunction prohibited Kansai Electric Power Co from resuming operations of the two units due to safety problems.
DPA International 15th July 2015 read more »
Japan’s nuclear industry still lags on safety, the country’s regulator said, after discovering documents submitted by an operator had been falsified. Chugoku Electric Power Co said on June 30 it had not conducted the mandatory inspection of equipment for handling low-level nuclear waste, yet had recorded that the checks were carried out. Shunichi Tanaka, head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) set up in 2012, said this highlighted the fact that safety standards are still far from perfect more than four years after the Fukushima plant meltdown.
Engineering & Technology Magazine 15th July 2015 read more »
Iran
Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, appears determined to push allies in the US Congress to block the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, despite warnings that his strategy would fail and further damage relations with the Obama administration. With few Israeli analysts demonstrating any confidence that Israel could muster the two-thirds support in Congress needed to overcome a presidential veto, a chorus of voices warned against persisting with a strategy they fear has left Israel increasingly marginalised.
Guardian 15th July 2015 read more »
Telegraph 15th July 2015 read more »
The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has a crucial role in policing the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. It has to verify whether Iran cuts back its nuclear infrastructure and by the end of the year, the agency is expected to deliver a report on its investigation into suspicions that Iran carried out weapons design work – charges Tehran denies. The head of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, told the BBC’s Bethany Bell that Iran has agreed to the agency’s Additional Protocol, which gives his inspectors much more access to Iranian sites.
BBC 15th July 2015 read more »
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former head of the kingdom’s intelligence services and its veteran ambassador to Washington, has said Iran’s nuclear deal will allow it to get an atomic bomb and “wreak havoc in the region”.
Reuters 16th July 2015 read more »
South Africa
South Africa will launch its nuclear power procurement process at end of this month and select a strategic partner or partners by the end of the current financial year, the country’s energy ministry announced yesterday.
World Nuclear News 15th July 2015 read more »
Renewables
One of Scotland’s leading whisky producers has cut its carbon footprint by 90 per cent at a Highland distillery. John Dewar & Sons, part of the Bacardi group, installed a biomass boiler at its Aberfeldy site late last year and says the results are pointing the way for the industry. Iain Lochhead, operations director, said: “Traditionally, distilleries are heavy users of fossil fuel – and that’s not good for the environment. We had many ideas for reducing fossil fuel usage and explored several options, but we settled on a biomass boiler.”
Herald 16th July 2015 read more »
Renewable – Hydrogen
Aberdeen City council has awarded a hydrogen fuel contract worth around £1.9 million to Hydrogenics Europe Nv – a Canadian controlled company in Belgium. Hydrogenics Europe Nv – which designs, manufactures and installs industrial and commercial hydrogen systems – has been contracted to deliver a fully renewable multi-application power-to-gas facility. The site is to be a completely green system as it will produce hydrogen by the electrolysis of water using renewable electricity. Hydrogen fuel creates no greenhouse gasses and only produces water when burned, so the new system is hoped to help meet the government’s green energy targets. The facility is set to produce renewable fuel for transport and fuel cells, and hope to inject surplus energy into the Natural Gas network in the future.
Scottish Energy News 16th July 2015 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Britain’s first low cost ‘energy positive’ house, which can generate more electricity than its occupants will use, opens on Thursday despite George Osborne axing plans to make housebuilders meet tough low carbon housing targets from next year. The modest three-bedroom house built in just 16 weeks on an industrial estate outside Bridgend in Wales cost just £125,000 to build and, said its Cardiff University designers, will let occupants use the sun to pay the rent. Using batteries to store the electricity which it generates from the solar panels that function as the roof and more panels in the garden, and having massive amounts of insulation to reduce energy use in winter months, it should be able to export electricity to the national grid for eight months of the year. For every £100 spent on electricity used, it should be able to generate £175 in electricity exports, said Professor Phil Jones, whose team from the Welsh School of Architecture designed the house specifically to meet the low carbon housing targets set by the Labour government in 2006. These were scrapped last week by the Conservative government on the grounds that housebuilders should not be over-regulated.
Guardian 15th July 2015 read more »
Grid connections
UK interconnector capacity could more than double to 10.8GW by 2020 and reach 17.7GW by 2030, according to National Grid. The estimate comes from Grid’s 2015 Future Energy Scenarios (FES) report, published on Wednesday, in which its projections for interconnector capacity levels have increased dramatically since last year’s prediction of 6GW by 2020 and 11.8GW by 2030. Britain’s electricity market currently has 3.8GW of interconnection capacity with Europe; with a European Union non-binding target of at least 10 per cent – approximately 10.2GW – by 2020. Under its Gone Green scenario, this target would easily be met, Grid said.
Utility Week 15th July 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
People who live in fracking zones appear to suffer a higher rate of heart conditions and neurological illnesses, according to new research. Although the US study was unable to determine a specific reason, it suggests there may be a link between drilling and ill health, scientists said.
Independent 15th July 2015 read more »
THE Scottish Government have come under renewed pressure to clarify their policy on fracking. Friends of the Earth and opposition politicians made the call after Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive of chemical giant Ineos, said SNP ministers had told him they were “not against” fracking. Currently the Scottish Government has a moratorium on the practice “whilst further research and a public consultation is carried out”. Speaking in January when the moratorium was put in place, energy minister Fergus Ewing said the Government would take a “cautious, considered and evidence-based approach to unconventional oil and gas and fracking”. Friends of the Earth said they were convinced Scotland will move to a “full ban on fracking” after looking at the evidence.
The National 16th July 2015 read more »
Herald 16th July 2015 read more »
Herald 16th July 2015 read more »
Scotsman 16th July 2015 read more »
Times 16th July 2015 read more »
The head of chemicals company Ineos says Scotland could have a commercial fracking industry by 2018, despite an apparent campaign against the technology by the ruling Scottish National party. Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos chief executive and chairman , has told Scotland’s Herald newspaper he believes the industry will be thriving within years, despite a moratorium imposed by Edinburgh. Mr Ratcliffe, whose company owns exploration licences across more than 700 square miles of Scotland, said: “The Scottish government has said to us they’re not against fracking. “But what they do need to do is get comfortable with whether they’re happy with the risks of fracking in Scotland.”
FT 15th July 2015 read more »
Scotland will not be immune from this crisis. It relies on nuclear energy, coal-fired electricity, imported gas and power from renewable sources. The proportion of our power supplied by “clean” energy has been rising, with the ambition to achieve 100 per cent of gross electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2020 showing signs of being realised. That does not mean that wind, solar or tidal power will make us self-sufficient. The Scottish government’s own figures suggest that they will barely supply 15 per cent of our heating needs. Fast as the nation may be in developing, using and exporting renewable energy, there will still be an enormous reliance on traditional power produced from fossil fuels or nuclear energy and, as supplies of North Sea oil diminish, those will have to be sourced from abroad. It is in this context that the Scottish government must decide its policy on fracking. Yesterday, Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive of Ineos, claimed that, despite the moratorium on fracking in Scotland, SNP ministers were not necessarily against it. Nor should they be. Fracking offers the opportunity, not just of closing the energy gap, but of transforming the Scottish economy, with the Grangemouth refinery plant potentially becoming – as one Ineos executive put it – “the new Aberdeen”.
Times 16th July 2015 read more »
