Hinkley
PLANS for pylons connecting Hinkley Point C to Avonmouth have been accepted by the Government for examination. National Grid made the application back in May to install the overhead line, which would carry electricity from new nuclear power station Hinkley C. A six-month inquiry will now being held, and members of the public will be able to comment before a recommendation is made to the Secretary of State.
This is the West Country 30th June 2014 read more »
Wylfa
Finance Minister Jane Hutt set out the Welsh Government’s plans for £3billion of capital investment which will create 50,000 construction jobs. The projects have been identified as part of the Wales Infrastructure Plan since 2012, she said. This includes the “energy island” initiative on Anglesey, launched as part of the plan to buiild Wylfa Newydd nuclear plant. The aim is to create housing; better school buildings; and development of Enterprise Zones. The Minister will highlight the commitment the Welsh Government has made to supporting the economic recovery and public services in Wales, through investment in both social and economic infrastructure at the Wales Policy Forum conference in Cardiff.
Daily Post 30th June 2014 read more »
Torness
REACTOR at the Torness nuclear power station has been shut down after an electrical fault. A spokesman for EDF Energy said cooling to the reactor had been mainted and there were no health, safety or environmental impacts. The reactor Unit 1 was closed down due to an “an issue with the electrical system within our conventional plant”, they said. “As usual, our operations team took prompt action, putting safety first. “The reactor will be returned to power as soon as testing is satisfactorily completed.”
Edinburgh Evening News 1st July 2014 read more »
Moorside
Toshiba and GDF SUEZ have completed a deal that will boost development of the Moorside new nuclear power project on the West Cumbria coast in northwest England. The agreement sees Toshiba acquiring a 60-percent stake and GDF SUEZ retaining a 40-percent holding in NuGen, the UK-based nuclear energy company that plans to build three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors in West Cumbria. Each reactor will take approximately four years to build. When fully operational, the Moorside site is expected to deliver around seven percent of the UK’s future electricity requirements.
Build 1st July 2014 read more »
Career Structure 1st July 2014 read more »
Energy Business Review 1st July 2014 read more »
Copeland council leader Elaine Woodburn said: “It is fantastic that GDF SUEZ and Toshiba have secured the land. This is another significant step in the journey towards billions in investment and thousands of jobs, and we are delighted. “Securing the land was an important part of ongoing work towards new energy generation here in Copeland. This was once an ambition, and it is now becoming a reality. “We have always supported new build and we’re proud Moorside is progressing so positively.”
Carlisle News and Star 1st July 2014 read more »
Sellafield
Sellafield Ltd is looking for specialist suppliers to help with cleaning up and decommissioning the nuclear site in Cumbria. The work at the site, dating backing to the 1940s, has been valued at up to £1.5 billion and will be for 10 years. Around 11,000 people work at Sellafield but it needs “external assistance” to carry out the specialist work, the firm said.
Energy Live News 1st July 2014 read more »
Proliferation
Pete Roche: Since Angie Zelter asked me, over a year ago now, to write a chapter about the connection between civil nuclear power and nuclear weapons for her book “World in Chains”, I have become more and more concerned about the likelihood that nuclear weapons will spread to flashpoints around the globe.
Word Power Books 1st July 2014 read more »
Worried about nuclear proliferation? Not much has changed in 50 years. In July 1963, signatories to a letter in New Scientist agreed with the UK’s minister for science, Lord Hailsham, who said: “If we go on indefinitely experimenting with nuclear weapons, manufacturing them and stockpiling them, boasting of their potentialities, and keeping them at instant readiness, sooner or later a situation will arise, sometime, somewhere, where one will go off”. The same letter could be written today. Half a century on, no nuclear weapons have been fired in anger, but the laws of statistics and of unintended consequences are both probably awaiting their moment.
New Scientist 1st July 2014 read more »
Energy Security
One of the more prominent, if somewhat hazy, criticisms of increasing use of interconnectors to help the UK overcome its electricity market problems, is that ‘we won’t be able to rely on them when we really need them’. The implication being, they’re fine most of the time, but if we have a crisis, either dastardly foreigners might choose not to sell to us, or simultaneously crisis-stricken foreigners might be unable to. It makes for an alarming conversation-starter. But to draw useful conclusions, we need to drill down a little deeper, both to work out what the scenario is that we’re worried about, and to work out how we might respond.
Business Green 1st July 2014 read more »
Maybe it’s getting a bit wearisome to keep on pointing this out and I know that I’m getting a bit like a bear that wakes up when prodded with a stick etc. But …yes it’s the capacity market again. The latest is a press announcement from DECC that ‘Britain’s energy security strategy [is] now fully in place.’ This refers, in case you didn’t know, to ‘the amount of electricity generation capacity the government will procure’ through the capacity market, which as long-toothed readers of this blog will know, will be done through a series of ‘capacity auctions’. These auctions will see Britain’s gas fired power stations, present and future, being invited to bid to receive large amounts of money to persuade them to continue to be available to produce power (i.e. not shut down). As the Secretary of State says in his breathless press release, this is so ‘the ticking time bomb of electricity supply risks’ can be averted. We know the cost to consumers of this bonanza for gas fired power stations – on average £13 a year on bills. It really is such a silly long term policy that I cannot believe it will last for the time it will take to procure all this 52.5gw of gas fired power stations. But you never know: stranger things have happened.
Alan Whitehead MP 1st July 2014 read more »
Nuclear Conference
NUCLEAR industry leaders were welcomed to the town by David Mowat MP for an annual Nuclear UK conference. The event was held at the Park Royal Hotel in Stretton last week along with the second annual Women in Nuclear summit, celebrating the role of women in the industry while challenging perceptions to encourage young women to take up nuclear jobs. The Warrington South MP said: “I’m delighted that the nuclear industry has chosen Warrrington to host this important event. It was engineers working in Warrington who designed the UK’s first reactor in the 1950s and the town has had a strong bond with the industry ever since.
This is Cheshire 1st July 2014 read more »
USA
The Obama Administration actually wants nuclear power. It even looks like the Environmental Protection Agency’s new carbon rules were written in order to ensure the future of nuclear power.
Forbes 1st July 2014 read more »
A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) projecting world investment in energy technologies through 2026 sees a sharp rise in solar and wind power throughout the world by 2030. In the Americas (North, Central and South America) alone, Bloomberg predicts energy investment of $1.3 trillion through 2026 (Bloomberg picked that date for investment to assume operation by 2030) and a 28% share of non-hydro renewable energy capacity by that date. The share in the U.S. will be even higher.
Green World 1st July 2014 read more »
Japan
Keen to restart nuclear power plants three years after the Fukushima disaster, authorities may face an additional hurdle in securing approval — coming up with a cogent evacuation plan in the event of new accidents. The problem has come into focus as procedures for the first proposed restart enter the home stretch in Ichikikushikino, a town 5 kilometers from Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai plant. The government, facing the first summer in 40 years without nuclear power, is fielding complaints from residents who say key points have been missed in planning for any mass evacuation. Local authorities approve restarts, but Ichikikushikino, as it is only a neighboring town, does not get any final say in the matter. That didn’t stop more than half its 30,000 residents from signing a petition opposing it.
Japan Times 2nd July 2014 read more »
Switzerland
Switzerland is moving away from an electricity generation system in which nuclear power plays a key role and that is one of the best in the world, according to Wolfgang Denk, the head of Nuclear Assets in the Nuclear and Thermal Power Generation division of Alpiq Suisse. Denk said the country was “moving to a away” from a hydro and nuclear-based system that was “very good” to a system that is based on 100% renewables that would be a “very inefficient generation system.” Denk described the renewable energy subsidy system in neighboring Germany as “insane” and said Switzerland would be unwise to copy this system.
Platts 1st July 2014 read more »
Trident
The Chair of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) is amongst the authors of a joint letter of leading groups advocating nuclear disarmament who are broadly disappointed with the final report of the Trident Commission. The Trident Commission, made up of former Defence and Foreign Affairs spokespeople from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats, and the great and good from the academic and military establishment, have spent 3 years considering a joint response taking forward the debate over whether the UK Government should renew the Trident nuclear weapons programme.
Nuclear Free Local Authorities 1st July 2014 read more »
Britain’s nuclear deterrent should be renewed, according to the conclusions to an independent review. The cross-party Trident Commission said the UK should retain and deploy a nuclear arsenal for reasons of national security and its responsibilities to Nato, ahead of the Government’s decision over whether to renew Trident in 2016.
Engineering & Technology 1st July 2014 read more »
Scotsman 2nd July 2014 read more »
Herald 1st July 2014 read more »
Press & Journal 1st July 2014 read more »
STV 1st July 2014 read more »
FT 1st July 2014 read more »
In a most serious report released on Tuesday on an issue crucial to Britain’s identity and security but woefully neglected in political debate, one issue stands out – the extent to which the UK’s nuclear deterrent relies on the US. Without the cooperation of the US, says the report of the independent all-party Trident Commission, the life expectancy of the UK’s nuclear capability could be measured in months. The commission’s high level panel says it agrees that Britain’s deterrent is “a hostage to American goodwill”.
Guardian 1st July 2014 read more »
Renewables – solar
Scientists have come up with a new recipe for slashing the costs and environmental impact of solar cells, by employing a salt that is more traditionally found in tofu. A team at the University of Liverpool found that replacing cadmium-containing salt (CdCl2) with magnesium chloride in the production of solar cells would help cut costs of salt in the process by more than 99 per cent.
Business Green 1st July 2014 read more »
Renewables – wind
The renewable energy industry is pleading with the Communities Secretary to halt his apparent campaign against the development of wind and solar farms, after Ecotricity and Banks renewables became the latest casualties from his intervention in the planning system.
It emerged late last week that Banks Renewables has withdrawn plans for the Killington wind farm in south Cumbria, citing “overwhelmingly negative decisions” on onshore wind farm developments in recent months by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.
Business Green 1st July 2014 read more »
Renewables – offshore wind
Two Norwegian state-controlled energy companies are in line to receive £1.6bn in subsidies from UK consumers, after deciding to invest £1.5bn in building a wind farm off the coast of Norfolk. Statoil and Statkraft said they would begin work on the Dudgeon offshore wind farm after receiving a contract from the UK government, guaranteeing they will be paid roughly triple the current wholesale power price for every unit of electricity the project generates. The 67-turbine wind farm is the first to proceed under the Government’s new system of green subsidy contracts, pending state aid approval from the European Commission. It could be f ully operational by late 2017 and generate enough power to supply 410,000 homes. Statoil said the project would create at least 70 direct permanent jobs and that during peak construction phase there would be 350 further temporary jobs. The National Audit Office last week criticised the way in which ministers awarded subsidies to Dudgeon and seven other projects, which received contracts early with no competition. The NAO said this could result in “excessive” returns for energy companies and poor value for money for consumers. The NAO calculates that Dudgeon will receive £1.6bn in subsidy over 15 years – implying it could cost every UK home roughly £1.50 a year on their energy bills.
Telegraph 1st July 2014 read more »
Renewables – Anaerobic Digestion
US industrial giant GE has zoomed in on a small Mansfield-based energy business as one of the key technologies for growing its renewable energy business. Renewable technology business Monsal, based in Nottinghamshire, is due to be swallowed by the American goliath in a roughly £15m deal. Monsal has been lauded as one of the UK’s leading innovative renewable players because of its advanced anaerobic digestion technology which turns solid bulk waste into renewable energy. Anaerobic digestion is a biological process in which microorganisms break down biodegradale material in the absence of oxygen. One of the end products is biogas, which can be combusted to generate electricity and heat. GE said the acquisition will enhance GE’s wastewater treatment division and propel Monsal’s technology to a global audience.
Telegraph 1st July 2014 read more »
Renewables Investment
Government should consider the impact of unnerving investors when changing or making energy policy, or risk deterring much-needed finance, MPs have warned. A new report from the Committee of Public Accounts takes aim at the “complexity and changing nature” of government energy policy, which it says risks delaying investment in upgrading the country’s energy infrastructure.
Business Green 1st July 2014 read more »
Independent Renewables
New independent renewable projects in Scotland have seen a 50 per cent increase in a year, and now produce enough energy to power one million homes, according to a new report. More than £66 million was invested in independent schemes – projects not operated by the six largest power companies – in 2013. This generated around £234m of electricity, up from £191m in 2012, according to Smartest- Energy, a buyer of power generated by the independent sector. Trade body Scottish Renewables said the rise showed independent electricity generators – including communities, businesses, farmers and public bodies – were increasingly taking their energy future into their own hands. One of the latest projects is the £11.5m Loch Carnan community windfarm which is generating profits for reinvestment in South Uist, Benbecula and Eriskay by Stòras Uibhist, the community company which led Scotland’s biggest land buyout in 2006. This year, the wind farm is expected to generate £2m gross revenue for the island community. Huw Francis, chief executive of Stòras Uibhist, said: “This is the biggest community wind farm in Scotland with 6.9MW of capacity – but there has not been any real criticism of the turbines because people can see that the revenue they generate is staying in the community and helping us to maintain and enhance the environment of our islands.”
Scotsman 2nd July 2014 read more »
Herald 2nd July 2014 read more »
Community Energy
Let’s not get carried away, but it really could be time to get seriously excited about the prospects for community energy in England. First off, it’s great to see the launch of Community Energy England (CEE). For some time now, there has been a real need for a new representative body to promote the interests of those running projects on the ground. The launch shows the sector is shifting from a niche activity run by hard-core pioneers to a potentially disruptive force that can be tapped into by any community. And then, somewhat less excitingly, we have to celebrate the launch of the government’s community energy strategy in January. This was an important step that it was able to take because there was enough activity on the ground to make it look credible enough inside government (and particularly inside the Treasury!) and the rest of the energy sector.
Guardian 1st July 2014 read more »
Energy Efficiency
National Car Parks (NCP) has installed its 50,000th LED luminaire, completing the first phase of planned installations ahead of schedule. The LED lighting initiative is expected to reduce energy usage by 67% per year generating savings of 11,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and more than £25m over the life time of the lighting system.
Edie 1st July 2014 read more »
Climate
When the Environmental Protection Agency published in June its new rules to combat carbon emissions from power plants, the American political class lit up in debates over what this meant for the country’s carbon emissions, its coal industry and its economic growth. But a more relevant discussion was taking place some 7,000 miles away. In Beijing, He Jiankun, an academic and deputy director of China’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change, told a conference that China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluter, would for the first time put “an absolute cap” on its emissions. His comments, and the brief flurry set off over whether they represented government policy, highlight a little-appreciated feature of the long-running, often acrimonious debate over how to slow climate change. The most pressing issue is not whether the United States will manage to wean itself from coal, or even about how quickly the American economy can reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. The most pressing issue is to what extent and under which conditions China will participate in the global effort to combat climate change. Any hopes that American commitments to cut carbon emissions will have a decisive impact on climate change rely on the assumption that China will reciprocate and deliver aggressive emission cuts of its own.
New York Times 1st July 2014 read more »
