Energy Costs
Boris Johnson: The energy companies are now preparing a long-overdue reduction in their bills – and there is only one theoretical objection. What are they supposed to do if Labour gets in, and implement their “freeze”? What if the price “freeze” were to prevent the rapacious power companies from passing on further cuts to the consumer? In the last few weeks, it has seemed that Miliband was impaled on a ludicrous policy of insi sting that energy prices should remain higher than the market demands. Now the Labour Party say that they didn’t mean to talk about a “freeze” at all; the idea was to have a “cap”.
Telegraph 19th Jan 2015 read more »
Robotics
The oil and gas industry is one area where the UK has long been a global leader in producing cutting-edge robotics. This expertise is now being transferred to other sectors, such as nuclear, as British companies look to grab a bigger share of the global robotics market. But while the UK is one the of the world’s leaders in robotics research, other countries such as the US, South Korea and Japan have been more successful at exploiting those opportunities commercially. Sellafield, western Europe’s largest nuclear waste site on the northwest coast of England, is pioneering the use of robotics in decommissioning. This month, Sellafield began using a flying robot called Riser to identify the location of radiation and make detailed visual records in areas that are too hazardous for humans to enter.
FT 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Europe
The ECB is expected to announce it will buy at least €500bn of eurozone government bonds from banks and other investors with electronically created money, hoping to keep long-term interest rates low. Green campaigners in the UK are urging European policymakers to take a different approach. In a paper published today, the Green New Deal group, which includes the Green party and the Tax Justice Network, calls for the money created by the ECB to fund environmentally friendly technologies and new green infrastructure to create jobs and growth, not to buy up bonds.
Observer 17th Jan 2015 read more »
Japan – Fukushima
A robot developed by a UK start-up is helping to locate hazardous radiation sources at the scene of the Fukushima disaster, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Createc, a small imaging company based in Cumbria, has developed camera technology called N-Visage for robots that can detect and draw a 3D map of high radiation locations that are too contaminated for human workers.
FT 18th Jan 2015 read more »
North Korea
US academics and former senior officials met North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator Ri Yong Ho in Singapore yesterday to get a feel for each other’s positions on Pyongyang’s nuclear missile programmes. Leon Sigal, who is director of the Northeast Asia Co-operative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council NGO, explained: “It’s two ways of taking each other’s temperature.” The US and North Korea have no formal diplomatic ties, but former US officials occasionally meet Pyongyang diplomats. North Korea has indicated willingness to rejoin long-stalled six-party denuclearisation talks but has resisted US demands that it first take concrete steps to show good faith.
Morning Star 19th Jan 2015 read more »
Guardian 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Iran
As Iran and major powers met on Sunday to take stock of their differences over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme, a leading Republican critic of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy continued his push for new sanctions, unswayed by a White House veto threat and lobbying by the British prime minister.
Guardian 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Ukraine
MEPs’ ‘invitation’ to the European Council to broaden the sanctions spectrum against Russia in the nuclear sector raises concerns over Europan safety, which has already been compromised lately as a result of the competition between the US and Russia over Ukraine’s nuclear energy market while the US has delivered incompatible fuel rods to Russian (Soviet) designed power stations. The EU’s failed Russian sanctions policy, damaging the bloc’s 28 economies, ended in a frantic search for influence mechanisms on the Kremlin and became increasingly reckless, interfering with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) prerogratives – a dangerous move. The accident at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant in Ukraine just a few weeks ago was not reported to the IAEA as it should have been, which demonstrated a vulnerability in a sector manipulated by the political agenda in a country torn by armed conflict and sinking in debt. Breaking the rules, requesting accident reporting to the IAEA, the government’s silence opened the gate to speculation over the situation in the nuclear sector, with possible fatal impacts on Europe, already acquainted with nuclear troubles following the Chernobyl catastrophe.
EU Reporter 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Faslane
A new building which would release nuclear waste into the Gareloch looks set to win approval– despite more than 700 objections. The Ministry of Defence proposals for HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane – first revealed here – will be decided by members of Argyll and Bute Council on Wednesday. Planning officials have recommended the nuclear support hub building for approval, pointing out that 97% of the 732 objectors do not live in the area. The two-storey building, 45 metres long and 31 metres wide, will replace older facilities treating waste from nuclear-powered submarines. Environment agency SEPA had no objections to the plan, saying radioactivity levels near the base were already within agreed limits and the new building would reduce the levels still further.
Lochside Press 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Trident
SNP MPs will join Plaid Cymru and the Greens at Westminster tomorrow to demand that the “morally repugnant” Trident nuclear weapons system is scrapped. The Scottish National Party will put the issue at the heart of its single annual opposition debate in the Commons. “Nuclear weapons are financially stupid and morally repugnant,” said SNP Westminster leader and defence spokesman Angus Robertson. “We have to stop wasting tens of billions of pounds on nuclear weapons — particularly at a time when Tory cuts mean that many families can’t afford to put food on the table — and this debate is a step in the process of getting rid of Trident for good.”
Morning Star 19th Jan 2015 read more »
STV 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Renewables – AD
WHILE shale gas has grabbed most of the headlines in recent months, another form of unconventional gas has quietly been establishing itself in Scotland. Scotland’s first “gas to grid” anaerobic digestion project in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, came on line towards the end of 2014 and a number of others are currently in various stages of development. There is no doubt that commercial scale anaerobic digestion gas-to-grid has arrived in Scotland. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a natural process where, in the absence of oxygen, organic material is broken down by bacteria to produce biogas. The technology is not new. AD plants producing biogas have been widely used for some time. The gas produced was typically used for on-site heating or for the production of electricity. However, if there is no on-site or neighbouring demand for h eat, then using the gas to solely produce electricity only uses around 30-35 per cent of the energy in the gas. A far more efficient method of harnessing the energy content, and one with reduced emissions, is to clean up the gas and inject it into the gas grid – into the pipeline networks that supply our homes and businesses, bringing green gas to all. By selling into the grid, developers of projects create a market; no longer are they concerned with the financial stability of a single on-site user of gas. It also has a number of other potential benefits.
Scotsman 18th Jan 2015 read more »
Renewables
2014 was an exciting year for renewable energy. After a three-year slump in renewable energy finance, investment grew last year, with records level seen for the amount spent on wind farms, as well the construction of both new wind and solar capacity.
Ecowatch 9th Jan 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The UK government’s planned shale gas revolution has barely got out of the starting blocks with just 11 new exploratory wells for shale gas and oil due to be drilled this year even before the impact of plunging oil prices has fully begun to impact on the industry. David Cameron has said the government is going “all out for shale” but just a handful of new wells are in line to be created in 2015 and just nine wells – eight new and one existing – have been announced as candidates for fracking. Professor Jim Watson, research director at the UK Energy Research Centre and author of a recent report on the potential for shale gas in the UK, said that statements by politicians on shale gas’s potential h ad been speculative.
Guardian 19th Jan 2015 read more »
Campaigners in Scotland believe a series of imminent decisions could force the SNP government to come off the fence on fracking. This week SNP MPs will have an opportunity to vote on an amendment to the infrastructure bill, a proposed moratorium on fracking, which Friends of the Earth Scotland argues will be a crucial test of intent. And in the next few weeks, the only active application in Scotland – for coal-bed methane extraction at Airth, near Falkirk – will land on Scottish government ministers’ desks for a final decision. Last week, the UK government agreed to exclude Scotland from the bill, which removes the rights of householders to object to drilling under their homes, following cross-party opposition from Scottish parties. This was done in the expectation that publication later this week of draft clauses of the new Scotland bill will include Smith Commission recommendations to devolve onshore licensing and mineral access rights, which Scottish Labour believes should be fast-tracked before the general election.The threat of unconventional gas extraction in Scotland gained a high profile during last summer’s independence referendum campaign, and since then momentum has not abated, with local opposition groups forming in particular around the central belt where chemical giant Ineos recently acquired 729 square miles of fracking exploration licences.
Guardian 19th Jan 2015 read more »
