Hinkley
Hinkley Point C – a hugely expensive mistake? There’s a big elephant in the room – I mean the biggest elephant that could ever trample through even the biggest of rooms. It is the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor, and the room in question is Great Britain. I use the metaphor because the phrase refers to a topic no one talks about, and that is how it feels thinking about Hinkley C while living in the region close to where this vast and expensive reactor might be built. There is a general feeling across the Westcountry that the giant generator will go ahead soon. Local authorities have been busy signing up to spend the spin-off funds that the French company EDF has put forward in planning gain pay-offs and many businesses and potential employees are been keen to see the project start. There’s also that vague, worrying notion that the lights might all go out one day if someone doesn’t do something to keep them on. But there has been an increasing drip-feed of opinion that sways the other way. An opinion that says the big creature in the room is actually a vast, unaffordable white elephant…The other day in the Western Morning News we carried a story revealing that the planned £24.5bn Hinkley C was coming under intensifying criticism from the energy industry and the City as the Government prepared to give the final go-ahead for the heavily subsidised project which is due to open in 2023 when the current reactors are phased out. Critics are unhappy with the strike price agreed with EDF and many say its European Pressurised Reactor remains unproven. Now in the wake of such reports, a group called Stop Hinkley Campaign has asked how many more criticisms would it take “before the Government and EDF finally call a halt?” The group point to the growing number of recent statements which cast great doubt on the project, such as editorials in national newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph. But when the prevailing opinion has for so long been warm and friendly, it is worth pointing out that there are some cold undercurrents of disapproval beginning to wash up against Hinkley C. When it comes to something as vast and vital as future energy generation, we can’t have any elephants stalking around the room.
Western Morning News 18th Aug 2015 read more »
AN anti-nuclear protest by three women that blocked the main road into Hinkley B power station cost EDF approximately one million euros, it it was claimed at Taunton Magistrates Court on Friday.
Bridgwater Mercury 19th Aug 2015 read more »
Radwaste
RUMOURS of a proposal for a nuclear waste facility in Shepway could be on its way have been quashed. A working group was set up last month in New Romney for a Nuclear Waste Proposal which raised fears the Marsh could once again be the possible location for the country’s nuclear waste. A Shepway District Spokesman confirmed there are no “specific plans” for a geological disposal facility. An underground £12 billion nuclear dump was proposed for the Marsh in 2012.
Folkestone Herald 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Radio Cumbria item on Cumbria “dump” suitability Ft. Prof. Cherry Tweed & Eddie martin.
Cumbria Trust 19th Aug 2015 read more »
The disposal of radioactive wastes in deep geologic formations provides a means of isolating the waste from people until the radioactivity has decayed to safe levels. However, isolating people from the wastes is a different problem, since we do not know what the future condition of society will be. The Human Interference Task Force was convened by the US Department of Energy to determine whether reasonable means exist (or could be developed) to reduce the likelihood of future human unintentionally intruding on radioactive waste isolation systems. The task force concluded that significant reductions in the likelihood of human interference could be achieved, for perhaps thousands of years into the future, if appropriate steps are taken to communicate the existence of the repository.
SciTech Connect (accessed) 18th Aug 2015 read more »
NFLA Wales submission to the Welsh Government’s radioactive waste community engagement policy urges a rethink of support for a deep underground waste repository.
NFLA 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Plans outlined this week to deal with the UK’s nuclear waste have once again focused on the need for a deep subsurface repository. Which of the following do you think represents the best option? Going underground is the only viable solution. Nuclear energy is a major part of our future and we need a long-term plan for dealing with waste; We need to develop underground stores whilst scaling back on current nuclear commitments; We should follow Scotland’s lead and store it on the surface rather than investing billions in a long-term facility; The public will never accept that underground storage is risk-free. We should look at the potential of disposing of waste in space; We should explore the potential of paying other countries to deal with the problem for us; None of the above.
Engineer 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Politics
Corbyn’s plans for turning Britain into a clean energy economy are genuinely transformational. In the coming decades eight countries, 55 cities and 60 regions are aiming to have 100 per cent renewable electricity, heating/cooling and/or transport systems. Britain is not among them. But that is where Corbyn wants to take us. This is not just about changing technologies. It involves a fundamental rewrite of energy market rules — making energy “systems” more open, accountable, sustainable … and affordable. It involves creating new social rights to the development of local energy systems and breaking the grip of Britain’s energy cartel. Corbyn is emerging as the Emperor’s New Clothes candidate, the one person willing to question the emptiness of current British energy policies.
Morning Star 15th Aug 2015 read more »
Europe
This text focuses on the decision of the European Commission on the admissibility of state support for the expansion of Hinkley Point C, a British nuclear power plant. The European Commission not only influenced the development of energy sector in the UK with its decision, but also sent a strong signal that it is possible to use state aid for new nuclear power plants in the EU. The example of the Czech Republic shows the way this signal may be perceived by governments and energy stakeholders and how it can influence the national debates about the construction of new nuclear power plants, even before the detailed information about the whole case of state aid for Hinkley Point C has been published.
Energy Policy August 2015 read more »
Energy Supplies – Scotland
SNP ministers were warned last night that the closure of the giant Longannet power station would leave Scotland relying on imported electricity to keep the lights on. ScottishPower said yesterday that the massive coal-fired power station in Fife will close on March 31 next year. The plant has been producing enough electricity to power two million homes for the past 46 years and helped Scotland become a net exporter of electricity. The Conservatives claimed that its closure, combined with the Scottish government’s decision to rely heavily on intermittent renewable energy, would leave Scotland reliant on English electricity, particularly in cold periods. When Longannet closes next year, Scotland will only have SSE’s gas-fired power station at Peterhead and EDF’s two ageing nuclear stations at Hunterston and Torness left in operation. With thes e nuclear stations due to close in the next ten years, Scotland will have to cope without almost all the stations which have produced the base load supply for the country over the past few decades.
Times 19th Aug 2015 read more »
A cross-border dispute broke out last night after the SNP blamed rules set in Westminster for the closure of Britain’s second-biggest power station at Longannet in Fife and the loss of hundreds of jobs. ScottishPower, the owner of the 46-year-old coal-fired plant, said that it had been forced to shut the facility by high transmission costs and carbon taxes. The company, owned by Iberdrola, of Spain, said that the plant would shut down in March next year with the loss of 236 jobs. Within hours of the announcement, a bitter spat broke out between Holyrood and Westminster after Fergus Ewing, Scotland’s SNP energy minister, blamed a “discriminatory transmission charging system that penalises Scottish electricity generators in comparison to those in the south of England”. Longannet is second only to Drax, the giant power station in North Yorkshire, in te rms of UK generating capacity. However, it pays significantly higher transmission fees to National Grid because it is located hundreds of miles from Britain’s biggest population centres in England. ScottishPower said that Longannet had been left commercially unviable because of a transmission charging system that favoured plants located in England.
Times 19th Aug 2015 read more »
The early closure of Scotland’s last coal power plant is “a body blow” to the country’s hopes of being self-sufficient. That’s according to Prospect, the union representing engineering and technical staff at the Longannet Power Station. The decision to close the plant by ScottishPower on the 31st of March next year follows National Grid’s decision not to award it a contract for grid balancing services. Prospect Negotiator Richard Hardy said: “The news is a body blow not just to Prospect members at the plant and the economy of West Fife and the Forth Valley but also to Scotland’s hopes of remaining self-sufficient in energy generation. “It is extremely disappointing despite the efforts of ScottishPower and the Scottish Government, it has not been possible to put in place ways of keeping Longannet open until its original planned closure date of 2020.”
Energy Live News 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Carbon taxes are throttling Britain’s coal producers and could cause a power capacity crunch, the industry has warned. The latest blow was the closure of Scotland’s largest power station, coal-fired Longannet, announced on Tuesday, because of high transmission charges and carbon taxes. Phil Garner, director-general of the Confederation of UK Coal Producers, said jobs were being lost in some of Britain’s most deprived areas. “Energy policy should balance not just decarbonisation but security of supply and affordability,” Mr Garner said. “Coal generation is still the cheapest form of energy. Renewable sources get incentives. Fossil fuels get punitive measures.” The government is seeking to cut emissions by reducing coal use, with the fuel now taxed at more than 100 per cent. “A tonne of coal costs around £37 and th e tax is £50 a tonne,” Mr Garner said. Coal production is set to fall from 10m tonnes last year to about 8m this year, while almost 5,000 workers have lost their jobs in the past 18 months as several deep mines closed. Thousands of power station workers are also being laid off, mainly in south Wales, northern England and Scotland, where the mines are located.
FT 18th Aug 2015 read more »
SCOTTISHPOWER has abandoned plans to replace a coal-fired power station in East Lothian with a gas-fired alternative complaining a tax for being in Scotland is a key reason. The company says hefty transmission charges imposed by the National Grid which mean the further north you are the more you pay, was a key reason for abandoning plans for Cockenzie and the catalyst for the closure of the coal-fired Longannet power station next year. They say the transmission charges and high carbon taxes together make it no longer economic to generate electricity from coal or gas in Scotland. The station at Cockenzie, whose huge chimneys are a well-known landmark, was closed in 2013 because it did not meet modern environmental standards. ScottishPower said then that it wanted to convert the plant to burn gas, rather than coal. They said at the time that there were no compulsory redundancies, with workers offered other jobs, redundancy or early retirement. But work on the new 1000 MW power station at Cockenzie was delayed amid continued speculation over an uncertain economy and now it will not be progressed.
Herald 19th Aug 2015 read more »
IT IS one thing for a massive, coal-burning power station to reach the end of its days; it is another for plans for a new, cleaner, gas-fired station to be scrapped at the same time and citing identical reasons, the pernicious and illogical transmission regime of the UK’s national grid. The new gas turbine plant at the site of the former coal power station at Cockenzie in East Lothian was approved by Scottish Power in 2011 but now this plan is to be abandoned in the face of what the company calls the “disproportionate” transmission charging regime. Longannet was the largest power station in Europe when it opened in 1970 and it is still one of the biggest on the continent, with only Drax in North Yorkshire now bigger than it in the UK. But with the Fife plant’s size comes a polluting capacity to match and after the economic failure of the brief attempt at experimental carbon capture technology in 2011, its days were numbered and closure has now been confirmed for next March. Other technologies to limit carbon emissions were attempted, with some success but it was always going to be a fight to survive in the era of emissions targets. What did for it ultimately, in terms of the when not the if of closure, was the transmission regime.
Herald 19th Aug 2015 read more »
Japan – Fukushima
New evidence from Fukushima shows that as many as 2,000 people have died from necessary evacuations, writes Ian Fairlie, while another 5,000 will die from cancer. Future assessments of fatalities from nuclear disasters must include deaths from displacement-induced ill-health and suicide in addition to those from direct radiation impacts.
Ecologist 17th Aug 2015 read more »
South Africa
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress called for a “full, transparent and thorough cost benefit analysis of nuclear power,” as the country prepares for a bidding process to build nuclear plants. In a document that will be discussed at its policy review conference in October, the party showed its first signs of caution as President Jacob Zuma’s government gets ready to award contracts this year to build nuclear plants that will generate 9,600 megawatts. “Government must also announce publicly that nuclear energy can only be procured in line with the legal prescripts and after a thoroughgoing affordability assessment,” the ANC said in the document that was released on Monday. Russia’s state-owned Rosatom Corp., Areva SA, EDF SA, Toshiba Corp.’s Westinghouse Electric Corp., China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corp. and Korea Electric Power Corp. have shown an interest in bidding for the project, which may cost as much as $100 billion.
Bloomberg 18th Aug 2015 read more »
North Korea
Charting the course of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program has always required painstaking detective work. Because the country is so closed to outsiders, hints have been drawn from sources such as atmospheric samples, seismic data and satellite photographs. A new building or roof on an industrial factory has often pointed to activity inside. North Korea once gave a visiting American scientist an eyeful: a sprawling array of new uranium enrichment centrifuges that hadn’t been detected previously.
Business Insider 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Trident
Well, well. This is interesting. The renewal of Trident is to be debated at the Scottish Labour Party conference, according to the new Scottish leader, Kezia Dugdale. The times they are a- changin’. It’s a move that will worry the present party leadership in the UK, who’ll insist that Trident is not an issue for the Scottish party because defence is reserved to Westminster. The SNP think she isn’t serious. But CND are certainly excited. The last time the Scottish Labour Party debated Trident more than 20 years ago, conference opposed nuclear weapons. In fact, that vote has never been reversed. So if Ms Dugdale is serious this could be a breakthrough for unilateralists. If Labour voted against renewal, their leader could hardly ignore it. During Ms Dugdale’s campaign she insisted that the old rigged Labour politics was finished and that the Scottish conference would become a proper democratic policy forum. She hopes to draw a contrast with the SNP conference where certain issues, such as a second referendum, have been curiously absent from the conference agenda. Wendy Alexander’s former spin doctor, Simon Pia, told BBC radio yesterday that only through independence on issues such as Trident will Labour combat the dominance of the SNP.
Herald 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Renewables – Scotland
Scottish Renewables has revealed that Scotland is embracing home-grown energy with 600,000 solar panels installed, but warns that subsidy cuts are already punishing the sector. Scotland has 42,000 solar schemes, 2,557 small wind projects, 204 hydro-electric schemes and three anaerobic digesters powering homes, businesses and community buildings. Scottish Renewable’s policy manager Stephanie Clark warned that cuts already planned for subsidies are having a detrimental impact.
Utility Week 19th Aug 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
Google can now tell you how much solar energy you could generate by installing solar panels on your house – if you live in the right place.
Edie 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Around 42,000 solar schemes (equivalent to around 660,000 250W solar panels), 2,557 small wind projects, 204 hydro-electric schemes and three anaerobic digesters, which turn waste into gas, are powering Scotland’s homes, businesses and community buildings – according to latest figures produced by Scottish Renewables and Scotland’s Rural College. However, new small renewables projects face an uncertain future, with the Department of Energy and Climate Change set to report on expected cuts in mid-September, and a wholesale review of the Feed-in Tariff, thorough which they are supported, set to start in days.
Scottish Energy News 19th Aug 2015 read more »
Renewable Heat
Global drinks firm Diageo will generate 2 million cubic metres of biogas a year from its whiskey factory in Scotland thanks to a new anaerobic digestion plant. Thy system, designed by Clearfleau, converts waste outputs from the whiskey distillation process – known as pot-ale and draff – into biogas which then generates renewable heat.
Edie 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Energy companies may not be able to invest in social housing unless the government clarifies the future of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, Spark Energy has warned. The independent supplier’s chief executive Chris Gauld told Utility Week that he sees the approaching ECO obligation as an opportunity for his company which specialises in the rental market. But uncertainty around the future of the scheme is affecting his ability to attract investment. The current obligation period will end in April 2017, after which the future of the scheme has yet to be announced. Gauld said that constant competition to provide the cheapest energy price “isn’t necessarily that healthy for the market.” Instead he wants to use the opportunity ECO provides to distinguish the supplier from the competition by saying to customers “we may not actually be able to save you pence per unit going forward, but we can reduce your energy use.”
Utility Week 17th Aug 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Scottish Power has announced that its coal-fired Longannet power station will be closing on 31 March 2016 after 46 years of service. The closure was first announced back in March 2015, reportedly thanks to high carbon taxes and the high cost of connecting to the grid. Neil Clitheroe, the CEO of retail and generation at ScottishPower, said it was a sad day for the company, but green groups hailed the closure as a ‘historic step’ in Scotland’s energy transition. WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: “While Longannet has served the nation for many years, it is Scotland’s single biggest source of climate emissions and a combination of its age, air pollution rules, carbon pricing and transmission charging have made closure inevitable. “The recent Scottish Parliament inquiry into energy security provided ample evidence from the National Grid and other experts that Scotland’s electricity supply is absolutely secure without Longannet. Indeed, Scotland will continue to remain a net annual exporter of power to the rest of Great Britain and an integrated part of the most secure electricity grid in Europe.”
Edie 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Scottish Energy News 18th Aug 2015 read more »
BBC 18th Aug 2015 read more »
STV 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Business Green 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Scotsman 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Herald 18th Aug 2015 read more »
FT 18th Aug 2015 read more »
The scale of the fracking boom ministers are hoping to orchestrate was laid bare today, as the government formally offered oil and gas development rights for 27 onshore blocks and announced plans to assess a further 132 blocks for potential development. Green groups, emboldened by Lancashire Council’s recent decision to reject two planning applications for fracking projects, said they would continue to fight efforts to build a UK shale gas and oil industry. “This is the starting gun to the fight for the future of our countryside,” said Daisy Sands, Greenpeace head of energy, in a statement. “Hundreds of battles will spring up to defend our rural landscapes from the pollution, noise and drilling rigs that come with fracking.
Business Green 18th Aug 2015 read more »
BBC 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Times 19th Aug 2015 read more »
FT 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Initial analysis by Greenpeace indicated the areas covered by the announcement will affect the constituencies of high-profile MPs including former Labour leader Ed Miliband, party leadership candidate Yvette Cooper, the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, and the shadow energy and climate minister Caroline Flint.
Guardian 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Fracking could take place across large swathes of England after the Government awarded energy companies new licences to explore for oil and gas. National Parks, protected wildlife habitats and historic city centres are among 6,000 square miles of the county earmarked for potential fracking, under Government plans to double the area open to oil and gas drilling. Ministers announced they would award companies rights to explore for oil and gas in 27 new blocks of land, spanning 1,000 square miles of northern England and the East Midlands, as they seek to kick-start a UK shale gas industry. The licences include parts of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, which are believed to be some of the most promising areas for shale gas.
Telegraph 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Given the unpopularity of fracking and big oil’s scepticism about the prospects of exploiting the UK’s onshore resources, why has the Government persisted with another licencing round covering more areas for fracking? Surely the risks are too high? The decision is even more perplexing now that oil prices are far below levels that are deemed to make it even moderately profitable. The same economic lo gic is true for gas, with wholesale prices 25pc lower than a year ago. Perhaps it would be better to leave the oil and gas in the ground until we really need it.
Telegraph 18th Aug 2015 read more »
It probably surprises nobody to learn that coal produces more of the world’s electricity than any other fuel. But it may provide food for thought to realise that the second most widely-used fuels for power generation are now renewables. Electricity generation from renewable sources has overtaken natural gas to become the second largest source of electricity worldwide, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has announced. In Europe, the main renewables used to generate electricity are wind and solar power. Since 1990, global solar photovoltaic power has been increasing at an average growth rate of 44.6% a year, and wind at 27.1%.The IEA reports that electricity production last year in the 34 members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) fell slightly to 10,712 TWh (terawatt hours) ̶ a decrease of 0.8% (86 TWh) compared with 2013. To put that in context, 1 TWh is 1 billion kilowatt hours, and each KWh takes about 0.36 kilograms of coal to generate.
Climate News Network 18th Aug 2015 read more »
Climate
Islamic environmental and religious leaders have called on rich countries and oil producing nations to end fossil fuel use by 2050. The Islamic Climate Declaration says that the world’s 1.6bn Muslims have a religious duty to fight climate change. It urges politicians to agree a new treaty to limit global warming to 2C, “or preferably 1.5 degrees.”
BBC 18th Aug 2015 read more »
