Hinkley
Two is often better than one, at least for European utilities grappling with massive upheaval in energy markets and dwindling profits. German utilities have shown the way by splitting themselves up in recent months. Now, Electricite de France should consider such a split to shore up its balance sheet, attract more capital and fund large investments. To recap: earlier this year, Eon separated its fossil fuels business into a new unit, Uniper. Meanwhile, RWE is poised to offer a 10 percent stake in its renewables, grid and retail operations in an initial public offering — providing it with a cash injection and a separate way to tap capital markets. The latter approach is the one best suited to EDF.EDF is 85 percent owned by the French government. Fortunately for a company that generates 77 percent of its electricity from fission, France remains committed to nuclear power, unlike Germany. Still, tumbling wholesale power prices are putting EDF’s nuclear business under pressure, and liberalized energy markets leave it increasingly exposed to competition. Meanwhile, the company’s gargantuan liabilities and spending plans have made EDF uninvestable for all but the bravest shareholders. EDF’s backing of an 18 billion-pound ($26.3 billion) nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in the U.K. looks misguided. Hinkley looks increasingly like a last throw of the dice, a project kept aloft by political considerations, rather than cold hard economics. In theory, EDF could reap large rewards from Hinkley — but the cash won’t arrive for a decade and it’s doubtful EDF will deliver the project on time and on budget.
Bloomberg 1st June 2016 read more »
A row has broken out after DECC refused to disclose the arrangements with EDF fordealing with radioactive waste from Hinkley.
Burnham-on-sea.com 31st May 2016 read more »
Rosatom
Rosatom estimates that the “economic potential” of agreements and memoranda signed at AtomExpo 2016 is as much as $10 billion. Its director general, Sergey Kirienko, said yesterday that about 30 documents had been signed during the three-day annual conference and exhibition the Russian state nuclear corporation is hosting in Moscow this week.
World Nuclear News 1st June 2016 read more »
Russia’s Rosatom, already challenging French and other rivals for nuclear plant sales around the world, is now targeting entry into the U.S. fuel rod market, a top executive with the company has told Reuters.Despite U.S. sanctions over Moscow’s treatment of Ukraine that have hurt some Russian firms and individuals, state-owned Rosatom still holds an almost 20 percent share of the U.S. enriched uranium market.
Reuters 1st June 2016 read more »
France
France’s CGT union workers voted on Wednesday to start rolling strikes in the power sector, including at all 19 nuclear power plants, as part of nationwide protests aimed at forcing the government to withdraw a disputed planned labour reform. The strike is expected to cut French power output from 1900 GMT on Wednesday as workers down tools at plants, but it is unlikely to lead to blackouts due to a rule that obliges unions to maintain a minimum output level that prevents outages.
Reuters 1st June 2016 read more »
Germany
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet approved a draft law on Wednesday that adopted recommendations requiring Germany’s utilities to pay 23.3 billion euros ($25.98 billion) into a state fund to cover the costs of storing nuclear waste, government sources said. The new law will also close a loophole to ensure that if companies split up, they will still remain liable towards the newly established state fund, the sources said. A 19-member commission recommended in late April that Germany’s “big four” power firms – E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall – pay a total 23.3 billion euros ($26 billion) to remove unwanted long-term liability for the storage of nuclear waste. The legacy costs stem from Germany’s decision to end nuclear power by 2022 following Japan’s Fukushima disaster five years ago.
Reuters 1st June 2016 read more »
US
In his pledge to aggressively expand American oil and gas production, and his framing of that push as a salvation for the nation’s economic and fiscal health, Donald J. Trump is following in the footsteps of decades of Republican politicians. But in a market where domestic oil production is already higher than it has been in 40 years, and natural gas production is at a historic high, those proposals have run up against a major problem: the global economy. As the presumptive Republican nominee spoke in Bismarck, N.D., this week, in the booming Bakken oil fields not far away, oil and gas workers were actually being laid off, victims of their own success and the global energy glut they have helped produce. Plunging oil and gas prices have pointed to a fundamental flaw in Mr. Trump’s argument: At a certain point, production of oil and gas will push prices too low to justify even more production. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries — especially its leading producer, Saudi Arabia — also gets a say. If it decides to keep the spigot cranked, the bar for profitable American production gets higher, investment falls and the sector contracts, regardless of Mr. Trump’s intentions.
New York Times 28th May 2016 read more »
A lot of people consider astrophysicist Stephen Hawking to be the smartest man in the world. His research and theories have explained some of the deepest mysteries of time and space. So it’s understandable why, on Tuesday, people sort of freaked out when Hawking said there was one thing he could not explain: The popularity of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. “I can’t,” Hawking responded, when asked to explain Trump’s rise as part of an exclusive interview with British news station ITV News. “He is a demagogue, who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator.” But here’s the thing: in that same interview, Hawking also said he didn’t believe Trump was the greatest threat facing America, or even the world. The greatest threat, he said, is human-caused climate change.
Climate Progress 31st May 2016 read more »
Ukraine
Thirty years on from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the Ukrainian government has increased the contribution of nuclear power to the nation’s total energy balance. In 1991, it was 8%; by 2014, it had risen to 22%.
Nature 1st June 2016 read more »
Japan
A committee considering the future of Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s (JAEA’s) Monju prototype fast breeder reactor (FBR) has set out the requirements for an alternative operator for it. Last November, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said it had determined JAEA was not competent to operate the reactor in Fukui prefecture. The decision followed revelations of a history of insufficient inspections of equipment. At that time, it recommended to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) that it should find an alternative operator for Monju. A special committee under MEXT considering the status and future of the FBR reactor issued a report on 27 May detailing the necessary requirements for the new operator.
World Nuclear News 1st June 2016 read more »
Weapons Transports
It might come as a surprise – I have to admit, it did to me when I started my job with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons UK (ICAN-UK) – but nuclear weapons are routinely transported on British roads. These weapons of mass destruction frequently make trips from their base in Scotland to the refurbishment plant in Berkshire. When they do they pass by homes, workplaces, schools, and hospitals in the biggest cities in the UK outside of London: Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Preston, Leeds, Manchester, and Glasgow to name but a few.
Red Pepper 1st June 2016 read more »
Micro-CHP
As the Department of Energy and Climate Change launched a consultation about feed-in tariff (FIT) support for the green technologies of anaerobic digestion and small combined-heat-and-power (micro-CHP) boilers and generators, Inspirit Energy said it could benefit from potential changes hitting its rivals. DECC’s consultation, which began last week and closes on 7 July, proposed maintaining the FIT for micro-CHP but it does now propose the introduction of a cap of 1,560 units in 2017, 1,560 units in 2018 and 390 units the year after that, as well as proposes a limit of 3.6MW of installed capacity under the feed in tariff scheme up until the end of March 2019. Inspirit said it considered this to be “an incentive” for customers who were interested in its Charger 2.0 micro-CHP generator, as one of the FIT requirements is a maximum electrical output of 2.0kW, to register their interest before the limit is set.
Digital Look 31st May 2016 read more »
Renewables
An upsurge in new wind, solar and hydro plants and capacity saw renewable energy smash global records last year, according to a report on new supply. Some 147 Gigawatts of renewable electricity came online in 2015 – the largest annual increase ever and as much as Africa’s entire power generating capacity. Clean energy investment increased to $286bn (£198bn), with solar energy accounting for 56% of the total and wind power for 38%. Overall, more than twice as much money was spent on renewables than on coal and gas-fired power generation ($130bn in 2015), the REN21 global status report found.
Guardian 1st June 2016 read more »
Renewables – solar
Car manufacturer Nissan will generate 11.35MW from renewables at its biggest manufacturing site in Europe after switching on a new 4.75MW solar farm. The 19,000 solar photovoltaic panels are alongside 10 wind turbines already installed at the plant in Sunderland which is the European centre of production for the all-electric Nissan Leaf and its batteries. The renewable energy will save around 3,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and equate to 7 per cent of the plant’s electricity requirements.
Utility Week 1st June 2016 read more »
In the face of repeated attempts by the UK government to suppress the nation’s solar industry in favour of fracking and nuclear, Jeremy Leggett tells the story of how the solar company he founded in 2000 has not just survived, but driven forward with technical innovation – including its new ‘Sunstation’ – an integrated ‘snap-on’ solar generation design that elegantly embeds into roofs.
Ecologist 1st June 2016 read more »
Community Energy
Community-scale solar is the solar electricity market’s latest darling. Utilities are excited by the opportunity for revenue and grid benefit, developers see the attraction of scale for all types of utilities and retail markets, and local communities and state regulators are jumping at the opportunity to expand community participation and enhance solar access, all at what should be a fundamentally reduced cost.
Renew Economy 27th May 2016 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The Scottish Parliament has voted in favour of a permanent ban on shale gas exploration in Scotland, led by victorious Labour MSPs chanting; “No ifs, no buts, no fracking”. A motion posed by the Labour Party in Scotland – which is now the third-biggest party after gaining just 24 Holyrood MPs in last months’ Scottish parliament elections – was passed by 32 votes to 29 (comprising pro-fracking Tory MSPs) The minority-led SNP government ordered its 62 MSPs to abstain, while the Greens and Lib Dems also supported Labour. Although not binding on the Scottish Government, both the vote – and her party’s abstention – is deeply humiliating for Nicola Sturgeon, SNP leader and Scottish First Minister, because she herself is ‘deeply sceptical’ about fracking for shale gas.
Scottish Energy News 2nd June 2016 read more »
The Scottish parliament has voted narrowly in favour of a ban on fracking, after Scottish National party MSPs abstained following a debate that gave a strong indication of the changed nature of the new Holyrood chamber. Scottish Labour had tabled an amendment in support of a full ban as part of an environment debate headed by the new cabinet secretary, Roseanna Cunningham. The SNP announced a moratorium on fracking in Scotland last January, but has stopped short of an outright ban to allow for further consultation and a public health impact assessment. After SNP members abstained, the motion was passed on Wednesday by 32 votes to 29, with Sc ottish Greens and Liberal Democrats joining Labour to defeat the Conservatives. Scottish Labour’s environment spokesperson, Claudia Beamish, who tabled the amendment, immediately called on the SNP government to clarify its position after the vote, which does not create binding policy, but represents a significant defeat for the SNP so soon into this new parliamentary term.
Guardian 1st June 2016 read more »
BBC 1st June 2016 read more »
Times 2nd June 2016 read more »
Herald 2nd June 2016 read more »
Scotsman 2nd June 2016 read more »
The government-owned energy company, Vattenfall, is demanding the sale of its coal mines and power plants based in Germany to a Czech company, EPH. The deal includes some of Germany’s largest coal mines – and three of the top 10 most polluting coal plants in Europe. They are going to a deeply unattractive buyer – EPH, a company hell-bent on burning as much coal as possible. In the next couple of weeks, Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven, is facing a stark choice. On one hand, he could approve the sale of the most climate-destroying assets in Europe, breaking his own election promises in the process. Or, he could promote a transition to keep coal in the ground – and support a liveable climate – in an unprecedented decision by a government to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Guardian 2nd June 2016 read more »
