Hinkley
Nearly £8m was spent on Government advisers to broker the deal for the UK’s first nuclear power station in 20 years, an amount critics claim “stinks like a rotting fish’s head”. The lawyers Slaughter and May did best of the five consultants that spent 18 months in negotiations with energy giant EDF to secure the go-ahead for Somerset’s £14bn Hinkley Point C plant. The legal giant was handed a fee of £2.76m in October. This was when the Energy Secretary Ed Davey finally confirmed an agreement on the so-called “strike price” – the minimum EDF will received for electricity generated at Hinkley – at £92.50 per megawatt hour. Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West, uncovered the fees in a Parliamentary answer to one of a series of questions he has asked the Government, as he looks to prove that the project will ultimately be a “mega-disaster”. Mr Flynn told The Independent negotiations had been “neurotically secretive”, and the strike price was the result of a “limbo dance of creative mathematics”. He argued that the consultants’ fees were “definitely excessive and they stink like a rotting fish’s head”. There could be more bumper paydays to come, as the Government still has to steer the deal through the European Union. States that have become increasingly anti-nuclear in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011, particularly Germany and Austria, are believed to be preparing to try to kill the Hinkley development on state aid grounds.
Independent 23rd Nov 2013 read more »
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey MP, gets a second mention on the blog this week, as he has signed a ‘correction order’ for the Hinkley Point C development consent order (DCO). This is the second such order to be made for a DCO, the other one being for the Galloper offshore wind farm, previously reported here. The statutory instrument containing the corrections can be found here, and a document explaining the corrections (‘the correction notice’) can be found here. There were five corrections to the Galloper DCO and two of them could be described as incorrect document references and the other three incorrect wording giving effect to the decision on the application. The Hinkley Point C correction order contains no fewer than 46 corrections (although I used the phrase ‘no fewer than’ for Galloper as well, thinking that was a lot at the time), but I would categorise them all as simply drafting errors that are very minor (e.g. ‘floorspace’ becomes ‘floor space’, ‘West Somerset district Council’ becomes ‘West Somerset District Council’ – OK, I have chosen some of the most minor ones).
BDB Law 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Nuclear Safety
Tom Burke: One of the more opportunistic responses to the meltdown at Fukushima was that of nuclear advocates claiming that since there were no shots of anyone dying on TV public anxiety about nuclear power was misplaced and environmentalists opposition to nuclear power unjustified. Reducing a multidimensional energy policy issue to a body count – nuclear kills less people than coal so it’s OK – is not an argument of profound analytic integrity. On this logic no-one should make a journey by road if there is an option to fly since traffic accidents kill more people every year than aviation. Magicians are skilled at distracting your eye so that you do not see what is actually happening in front of you. This cynical focussing of public attention on the absence of immediate deaths from Fukushima was a contemptible effort to divert attention from its real consequences. The lives of a hundred thousand people evacuated from the area have been totally destroyed. They are never going home. Two and half years later little compensation has been paid and many are still living in temporary accommodation. The direct cost of Fukushima could well exceed half a trillion dollars and the indirect costs will be some multiple of that.
Energy Desk 21st Nov 2013 read more »
Politics
Alex Salmond has escalated the row over David Cameron’s plans to roll back green levies by accusing him of planning to take actions “which in planetary terms are suicidal.” The Scottish first minister said Cameron was more concerned about winning the next election than addressing the very real dangers of climate change. Salmond’s intervention came as Downing Street said it does not recognise reports that the prime minister wants to “get rid of all the green crap” from energy bills to bring down costs. According to the Sun, the prime minister was referring to the green levies, which fund renewables and reduced bills for poorer people and which make up £112 of the average bill.
Guardian 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
SSE and ScottishPower, two of the big six energy suppliers that recently raised their retail prices, on Friday found their future electricity distribution plans rejected for costing the consumer too much. The humiliating rebuff was handed out by Ofgem, in a move which indicated the regulator’s new leadership is determined to get tougher with the industry, in the face of soaring fuel bills and mounting public anger. But one independent energy firm, Ecotricity, said last night it had warned the regulator a year ago about the network operators “raking it in” and regretted the current lax regime was set to continue for another 17 months.
Guardian 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Independent 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Telegraph 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Times 23rd Nov 2013 read more »
Government plans to upgrade the electricity and gas grid could add as much as £180 to energy bills over the next decade, according to a report promoted by the energy industry last week. But energy regulator Ofgem suggests the cost could be less than a tenth of that.
Carbon Brief 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Japan
A reactor meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011 fundamentally changed the way the Japanese government and public saw their energy landscape. Now, the disaster is being used to justify a decision to relax Japan’s commitments to cut greenhouse gases. the government’s decision to allow emissions to rise can’t be justified solely by the energy shift following nuclear disaster. In short, Japan’s motivation for drastically altering its climate commitments can be summarised in one word -but it’s not ‘nuclear’; it’s ‘economics’
Carbon Brief 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Belarus – new reactor
Work has officially started on Belarus’ first nuclear power plant, located at Ostrovets. The two-unit plant is being constructed by Russia’s NIAEP-Atomstroyexport. Belarus becomes the first nuclear “newcomer” country in Europe, and the second country after the United Arab Emirates, to start the construction of its first nuclear power plant in three decades, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Modern Power Systems 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Iran – nuclear talks
Iran and six world powers appeared closer on Friday towards clinching an elusive interim deal under which Tehran would curb its contested nuclear programme, with diplomats saying a major sticking point may have been overcome.
Reuters 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Iran and six world powers struggled yesterday, after two days of talks, to overcome stumbling blocks to an interim deal under which Tehran would curb its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Herald 23rd Nov 2013 read more »
John Kerry and William Hague were due to arrive in Geneva on Saturday morning to join other foreign ministers in negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme. The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov arrived on Friday afternoon for talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammed Javad Zarif. France’s Laurent Fabius arrived in Geneva on Saturday morning, where Germany’s Guido Westerwelle and China’s Wang Yi were expected to join him in what is hoped will be a final push towards a deal that has eluded diplomats for over a decade.
Guardian 23rd Nov 2013 read more »
Saudi Arabia – nuclear weapons
A senior US senator, citing our Newsnight report concerning intelligence that Pakistan had made nuclear weapons that might be delivered to Saudi Arabia, has written to President Obama demanding he take action. Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, says that while efforts have gone into stopping the Iranian atomic programme “it is clear that must also be expended to ensure that other nations in the Persian Gulf do not themselves develop a nuclear weapons capability”.
BBC 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Kenya – Geothermal
Electricity may be at a premium in Kenya, but the country hopes to be the world’s leading exponent of geothermal power by 2023.
Guardian 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News.
Micro Gen Scotland 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Climate
Generating the funds needed to help vulnerable nations cut their greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the effects of climate change is a prime money-making opportunity for the UK’s financial institutions, the energy and climate change secretary has said. Ed Davey, speaking to journalists at the United Nations climate change talks on Friday as the fortnight-long conference in Warsaw drew to a close, said the expertise of UK-based financiers would be essential to raising funds from the private sector to divert towards developing nations.
Guardian 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
Negotiations over a global deal on climate change were deadlocked last night on the key question of setting a deadline for countries to propose targets for cutting emissions. The US suggested the deadline could be set at March 2015 but China was reluctant to agree any date, making it less likely that the deal will be signed as planned at the end of 2015. Developed and developing countries remained bitterly divided at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Warsaw over how to share the burden of cutting emissions.
Times 23rd Nov 2013 read more »
A new survey of expert opinion suggests 21st century sea level rise might be higher than the latest UN climate report projects. More than two thirds of the researchers interviewed for the study said higher and faster rises are possible – implying the report’s estimates could be too conservative.
Carbon Brief 22nd Nov 2013 read more »
