Wylfa
Campaigners have criticised Anglesey council for spending taxpayers’ money on sending a delegation to Japan to build relationships with the firm behind the new Wylfa B power station. The trip has been organised to build relationships with Horizon Nuclear Power. But objectors claim the cost cannot be justified at a time when public services are being cut. The council said the trip’s cost was negligible compared to the investment.
BBC 21st June 2014 read more »
EPR
France’s atomic regulator is troubled about the lack of communication with its Chinese opposite on projects to construct powerful, new nuclear reactors. The state-controlled French atomic energy firm Areva is the developer behind two European Pressurized Reactors under construction in the Chinese coastal city of Taishan. Once operational, the reactors are expected to generate roughly double the amount of power as typical reactors in service today, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. “It’s not always easy to know what is happening at the Taishan site,” Stephane Pailler, chief of international relations at the French Nuclear Safety Authority, told the news agency. “We don’t have a regular relationship with the Chinese on [European Pressurized Reactor] control.”
National Journal 20th June 2014 read more »
UK – China
The Government has been accused in Parliament of “accepting money tainted with blood”, after agreeing a deal that will allow Chinese firms to design, own and run British nuclear power stations. Campaigners are furious the Government has been wooing China without demanding improvements to the country’s notoriously poor human rights record. Mr Li’s Government was accused of placing “arbitrary curbs on expression, association, assembly, and religion” by Human Rights Watch in a recent report. Paul Flynn, the anti-nuclear power Labour MP for Newport West, motioned in the House of Commons last week for the Coalition to cancel any proposed nuclear agreements with China. “This House… believes, in light of appalling human rights violations, that accepting money from the Chinese State Investment Bank to invest in UK new nuclear is accepting money tainted with blood,” said the motion.
Independent 23rd June 2014 read more »
Small Reactors
Nuclear power is neither beautiful, nor safe, nor cheap, writes Justin Keating – a message to the United States, where the Obama administration has pledged to waste over $200 million financing the ‘Small Modular Reactor’ (SMR).
Ecologist 22nd June 2014 read more »
Energy Security
Energy security is once again high on the political agenda. The recent events in Iraq and Eastern Europe force us to think about how we obtain the commodities that light our homes, keep us warm and fuel our transport. European energy policy is struggling to reconcile conflicting objectives — cheaper energy, more infrastructure investment, lower carbon emissions. Into that tangle, we can add the prediction of the International Energy Agency that the European Union’s dependency on energy imports will increase from 60pc to 80pc by 2035. In response to the political crisis in Ukraine, the European Commission said it would like to reduce the EU’s dependency on Russian natural gas imports, which now account for about 30pc of the gas consumed. Energy supply and security will be key topics in the commission’s debate over energy and climate strategy for the next decade. Whatever is decided, effective policy implementation will not be possible without reliable commodity price signals. Suppliers of electricity, natural gas and road fuel need good physical price data. Without transparent wholesale markets and reliable prices, making, transporting and selling energy products becomes more risky. Uncertainty over the underlying energy prices raises the cost of building power stations and pipelines, which leads to higher fuel prices for consumers.
Telegraph 22nd June 2014 read more »
Energy Costs
Rising energy prices are beginning to overshadow a formal announcement from Ofgem this week of a “once and for all” investigation into competition among electricity and gas suppliers. Consumer groups have been pinning hopes of a shake-up in the market and lower prices on the inquiry to be conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). But the Ukraine imbroglio, the deepening Middle East crisis and threat to oil supplies is being cited by Energy UK, the industry body as a warning sign of the growing uncertainties.
Telegraph 22nd June 2014 read more »
An oil-price spike driven by the worsening crisis in Iraq could derail Britain’s recovery, drive up government borrowing, put household finances back under pressure, and damage global growth.
Times 23rd June 2014 read more »
Europe
The number of state aid approval requests by the UK to the European Commission continued to rise last year despite the economic recovery, research has found. The increase suggests the government still feels it needs to intervene to boost growth and tackle areas of market failure. Renewable and nuclear energy, where state aid supports the transition to a low-carbon economy, has been an area of tension with EU competition authorities. UK applications approved in the past 18 months include £600m support for the “green deal” energy efficiency scheme, £21m for a spacecraft manufacturer to develop a low-cost radar satellite and tax relief for producers of video games. But the EU authorities launched a formal inquiry into a flagship energy scheme, the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, and began a preliminary investigation into a £75m loan guarantee to Drax power station to help it burn wood pellets instead of coal.
FT 22nd June 2014 read more »
Italy
Italian and foreign investors are challenging the legality of cuts in subsidies to the rapidly expanding solar power sector imposed by Matteo Renzi’s new government, which the industry warns will undermine Italy’s credibility in attracting fresh investments. A government decree would cut some solar power tariff incentives by 10 to 25 per cent in the second biggest photovoltaic market in Europe. The move follows similar cuts in Spain and Greece. The decree, which has not yet been signed by President Giorgio Napolitano, has been criticised as unconstitutional by Assorinnovabili, an association of renewable energy companies. It has commissioned Valerio Onida, former head of the constitutional court, to present a legal opinion to the head of state.
FT 22nd June 2014 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
Letter: Surely the people of Scotland are entitled to know the targets of the 200 nuclear warheads ¬stationed at Faslane. Is Russia – our Second World War ally – a target? Is China a target, even as we build trading links? Or is it Iran? Until a few days ago this seemed quite likely as we’ve heard so much about Iran’s ¬“illegal” nuclear programme. Now, we, the West, are relying on Iran to bolster Iraq’s faltering regime?
Scotsman 23rd June 2014 read more »
Letter Norman Dombey: Scotland with its long coastline and deepwater ports at Leith and Hunterston would almost certainly be welcomed by Nato if it wished to join. Nato membership for Scotland, however, does not necessarily mean that member states that possess nuclear weapons could base them in Scotland; both Norway and Denmark are members of Nato who have a general policy of not allowing vessels carrying nuclear weapons in their ports.
FT 22nd June 2014 read more »
Renewables – FiTs
Alan Simpson: The European Commission wants to outlaw Feed-in-Tarrif payments that have been at the core of the clean energy revolution. Making it possible for households, schools, farmers and businesses to be paid for the clean energy they generate for themselves has been the energy equivalent of the Holland’s conversion to ‘total football’. Suddenly, energy generation became a game that was no longer dominated by the big bruisers. Kids with skills (and technologies) that were lighter, smarter and quicker, began to pass the energy ball around, in ways that both mesmerised and confused the big guys. In less than a decade, Germany installed almost 80GW of renewable electricity generating capacity. This helped drive European wholesale electricity prices to be 50% lower than in the UK and produced a tumbling of worldwide solar PV prices. More significantly, however, 95% of this generating capacity was owned by people, not corporations. Feed-in-Tariffs have been the key to this change in the German game. As a householder, a business or a school, you don’t have to become an energy trader. Becoming a ‘player’ is simple. You just have to record and submit details of the electricity you generate. What you consume yourself comes free and the payment for generation and export arrives later. Big Energy in Germany owns just 5% of renewable energy generating capacity. The big guys haven’t been able to get the ball back.
Renew Economy 23rd June 2014 read more »
Renewables – subsidies
The pot of money that ministers have set aside to subsidise UK renewable power is likely to run out much more quickly than previously thought, according to research, placing green energy projects in jeopardy. An analysis by Aurora Energy Research suggests the government has its forecasts wrong on wholesale electricity prices. It says these will fall much more quickly over the next few years than Whitehall’s models suggest. The lower the market price, the more the government has to subsidise low-carbon energy. Yet the subsidy total has been capped, meaning it could be used up more quickly than ministers predict. This could have worrying implications for many big offshore wind projects in development, which are heavily reliant on state incentives. The UK needs such projects to go ahead if it is to meet its legally binding target of generating 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020. Signs have emerged that concerns about the size of the subsidy are already having a chilling effect.
FT 22nd June 2014 read more »
Subsidies for wind farms and biomass plants will cost households about £7 a year extra by 2020 because the government has got its forecasts wrong over energy prices, according to a study. The analysis, from Aurora, an energy research company, undermines the government’s economic case for handing consumers the role of bankrolling a huge expansion in renewable energy. Drax, the Yorkshire power plant, is one of the first energy companies in line for the new subsidies under the Government’s reforms. The subsidies guarantee that biomass generators will receive double the current wholesale price for electricity while offshore wind farms will receive treble.
Times 23rd June 2014 read more »
Renewables – floating turbines
Three prototype technologies are competing to provide the first commercial floating wind turbines that could harness the world’s strongest winds in the deepest waters. Drifting off the coast of Portugal, the frontrunner in the global race for floating windfarms. Floating windfarms could play a key role in re-powering Japan, whose love affair with nuclear power ended after the Fukushima disaster, and whose seabed plunges steeply offshore, leaving little space for fixed turbines. The US is also keen, with huge populations near both coasts. In the UK, home to some of the world’s best winds and already hosting the most offshore windfarms, floating turbines could arrive as soon as 2016. Far out to sea, they could also tackle the galeforce antipathy that in some areas have blown out plans for onshore turbines.
Guardian 23rd June 2014 read more »
Energy Efficiency
The debate on European energy policy which will come to a head at the EU summit later this week is focused on building new infrastructure and diversifying sources of supply especially of gas. Both are sensible steps but there is a third strand of policy which could help achieve each of the three objectives which are shaping policy – the desire for energy security, the drive to reduce costs to protect competitiveness and the aim of reducing emissions in support of the campaign against global warming. We should just use less. Efficiency is the neglected Cinderella of the policy world. It should be top of the agenda and backed by fiscal and regulatory measures to force the necessary changes in behaviour. My comments a couple of weeks ago on the emerging CEP – Europe’s new Common Energy Policy provoked a lot of comments from readers. Here is a specific idea which I hope will provoke even more. There is an extensive, often arcane literature on how to define energy efficiency and genuine difficulty about comparing one country with another. Precise definitions do matter but for the purposes of opening this debate lets start with total energy consumption. According to the new, and as usual excellent, BP Statistical Review of World Energy which was published last week the EU consumed 1,685 million tonnes of oil equivalent last year. That is just under 6 per cent down on the 2003 level – a reduction which owes more to the recession and years of very limited growth than to any policy measures. This week’s summit should set a new target – a reduction of say 2 per cent per annum over the next decade – a cumulative total of around 25 per cent from the 2013 level by 2025. This idea is glanced at in the Commission papers for the summit but not spelt out clearly.
FT 22nd June 2014 read more »
Green Investment Bank
The new Green Investment Bank is coming under fire for financially supporting the burning of millions of tonnes of wood from overseas in power stations. The Edinburgh-based bank, set up by the UK government to fund green infrastructure projects, has lent £50 million to Drax power station in North Yorkshire to help it to switch from using coal to burning wood. The move is aimed at reducing the reliance of the UK’s largest power station on climate-changing fossil fuels by introducing biomass, wood-burning plants. Critics say this will mean having to import up to 15 million tonnes of trees a year from North America and is a “false solution” to climate pollution. Not only does burning wood produce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, importing wood in such huge quantities will involve sea transport, itself an oil-using contributor to climate changing emissions. MSPs from three political parties, environmental groups and community representatives have now written to the bank saying they are “deeply concerned” that it is supporting large-scale biomass plants. Demonstrations are also planned at its annual meetings in Edinburgh and London this week.
Times 23rd June 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
A study of abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania finds that the hundreds of thousands of such wells in the state may be leaking methane, suggesting that abandoned wells across the country could be a bigger source of climate changing greenhouse gases than previously thought.
Guardian 20th June 2014 read more »
