Sellafield
Sellafield clean-up gets messier as ‘failing’ consortium faces takeover: Unions are demanding answers over the future of Sellafield, one of the world’s most hazardous nuclear sites, as the US engineer leading toxic clean-up work there faces a $4bn (£2.3bn) takeover. Last week, California’s Aecom announced that it has agreed to buy rival URS in a deal that could be worth £3.5bn once debt is included. Industry insiders and unions are worried that URS heads Nuclear Management Partners (NMP), a consortium which has been criticised for a string of failures at the Cumbrian nuclear facility since it was awarded the decommissioning contract in 2009. Britain’s Amec and France’s Areva are NMP’s junior partners. The industry was shocked that NMP was granted an extension to its deal last year, as costs have spiralled to what MPs have described as an “astonishing” £70bn-plus. An industry source added: “The ownership change will just plunge Sellafield’s leadership into yet more confusion at a critical time, as the consortium tries to wrestle control of the decommissioning programme. The NDA will be left ruing the day it extended the contract.”
Independent 24th July 2014 read more »
Sizewell
Operators of Sizewell B power station have announced it will be taken offline for planned maintenance work on Saturday. EDF Energy said the plant near Leiston will stop generating for about a day while engineers top up oil which lubricates bearings on one of the four reactor coolant pump motors.
East Anglian Daily Times 24th July 2014 read more »
Aldermaston
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston, Berkshire, will remain under increased scrutiny for the second year running, the Government’s nuclear safety watchdog has announced. The nuclear weapons factory at AWE Aldermaston was served with an improvement notice in 2013 by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) after a number of safety concerns were raised by the safety body. Issues involve “ageing facilities” and the disposal of 1,000 drums of radioactive waste. The move follows a string of previous safety concerns – including a safety breach during a fire at the site in 2010, which resulted in a £200,000 fine.
CND 23rd July 2014 read more »
Electricity Market Reform
Contracts for Difference and Capacity Market mechanism secure state aid approval, as critics warn reforms throw a lifeline to dirty coal power. UK government plans to support renewable energy projects through a new subsidy mechanism known as Contracts for Difference (CfD) have received the green light from Brussels today, marking a major step forward for Britain’s electricity market reform programme. The European Commission also gave state aid approval to the UK’s planned Capacity Mechanism, which will provide financial support to plants that offer back-up power at times of high demand.State aid approval for the proposed CfD agreement with nuclear developer EDF is also being considered under a separate process.WWF reiterated its concerns that the capacity market would not represent value for money for consumers and would allow some old and inefficient coal plants to remain open past 2033.
Business Green 23rd July 2014 read more »
European Commission Press Release 23rd July 2014 read more »
Energy Costs
North of Scotland consumers will benefit from a deal to spread the subsidy costs of providing electricity to the Shetland Islands across Great Britain, the UK government has said. Until now, residents in the north of Scotland have footed the entire subsidy bill for Shetland. But the government said spreading the costs meant the average northern consumer would save £42 a year. The announcement came as Prime Minister David Cameron visited Shetland. His office said the move would put the electricity subsidy on a more sustainable, long-term footing and keep prices at 75% less than they otherwise would be. It follows a previous UK government announcement that Shetland’s power plant, built in 1954, would be replaced in 2017. The government has said it would help meet the cost of a new one.
BBC 23rd July 2014 read more »
New Nukes
Keith Parker: “Nuclear power remains, prospectively, one of the cheapest low-carbon technologies and can play an important role as part of a cost-effective portfolio of technologies to decarbonise the power sector.” As the Chief Executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, this is something you’d expect me to say, but this is the viewpoint of the Committee on Climate Change in its progress report to Parliament earlier this month. Recently, Tom Burke wrote on these pages of the “costly gamble” of investing in new nuclear because of rising renewable energy output. I’m afraid that the “costly gamble” will be not investing in new nuclear plants. I’m not arguing against renewables, but it isn’t the answer alone.
Guardian 23rd July 2014 read more »
Radhealth
Children currently living near Sellafield or Dounreay nuclear plants are not at an increased risk of developing cancer compared to peers in other parts of Britain , researchers have said.
Belfast Telegraph 23rd July 2014 read more »
Children currently living near the Sellafield nuclear plants are not at an increased risk of developing cancer, researchers from the North East have found. People living close to nuclear power stations should take reassurance from the study, experts from Newcastle University said. The researchers found that children, teenagers and young adults who live near the two sites are not at an increased risk compared to the general population. Their study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, examined cancer rates between 1963 and 2006 among those who were under 25 and living near Sellafield or the Dounreay plant in Scotland when diagnosed.
The Journal 23rd July 2014 read more »
ITV Border 24th July 2014 read more »
Utilities
The profit from Scottish Power’s renewable generation portfolio has increased, while parent company Iberdrola has seen its renewable revenue fall.
Utility Week 23rd July 2014 read more »
The suppliers are making more savings than what was estimated when the changes were proposed in December, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc).
Utility Week 23rd July 2014 read more »
The crucial line was to be found on page 50 of the government’s response to its consultation on the future of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme. It confirmed that, just as sources from across the energy efficiency sector had been warning for months, the decision to extend the deadline for energy companies to fund efficiency improvements through the ECO scheme would result in a windfall for the Big Six energy firms.
Business Green 23rd July 2014 read more »
Dalgety Bay
Dalgety Bay Community Council has agreed in principle to back the Ministry of Defence’s £10 million beach clear-up plan. It is another important hurdle crossed in the long-running campaign to find a solution to the problem of radiation contaminating the town’s foreshore area. The MoD finally revealed its proposal to remove contaminated material and bolster sea defences. It would also build a new slipway for the sailing club. Once completed — around 2018 — it is anticipated all the current restrictions would be lifted, allowing the public unrestricted access to the foreshore. The move comes nearly 25 years after the first radioactive particles, from dumped wartime aircraft, were first discovered. In a specially convened meeting, attended by representatives of the MoD, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP Gordon Brown told the audience while welcoming the move, he believed the timetable needed to be moved forward.
Dundee Courier 23rd July 2014 read more »
Energy Policy
Britain should stop building expensive offshore wind farms, energy giant Centrica has said, claiming that billpayers could be saved £96bn by 2030 if ministers pursued a cheaper green strategy. The British Gas owner – whose chief executive Sam Laidlaw is preparing to step down after eight years – on Wednesday took the unusual step of issuing its own manifesto for how to solve Britain’s energy crisis, claiming its plans were three times cheaper than Government’s. It advocates building no more offshore wind farms, which it calls “an expensive option that may not be needed”, stopping solar panel deployment, “since it generates no output at times of peak demand” and restricting use of expensive solid wall insulation for homes. Instead it backs gas, nuclear and carbon capture and storage (CCS) plants. It claims the plan would save consumers £100 a year by 2030, compared with the Government’s strategy, while still hitting 2050 carbon targets. But the manifesto would involve Britain failing to meet its legally-binding EU target for renewable energy generation by 2020, and would also involve weakening green targets for the late 2020s.
Telegraph 23rd July 2014 read more »
PRISM
IBERDROLA and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation towards the deployment of PRISM technology as a credible long-term solution to reuse existing reprocessed plutonium in the UK.
Energy Business Review 23rd July 2014 read more »
Sweden
Sweden’s top nuclear power generators have been forced to cut output because of exceptionally warm weather in Scandinavia, and their output could be reduced for over a week, their operators said on Wednesday. Oskarshamn, part of Germany’s E.ON and Forsmark, operated by Swedish utility Vattenfall have both cut output because warm sea water temperatures are limiting their ability to cool down.
Reuters 23rd July 2014 read more »
Philippines
The government of the Philippines is evaluating costs of transforming the 621 MW Bataan nuclear reactor into an 1,800 MW gas-fired plant. The proposed conversion is necessary “to ease the country’s growing demand for energy”, according to the office of the president Benigno Aquino III.
Gas to Power Journal 24th July 2014 read more »
Vietnam
The US Senate foreign relations committee approved an agreement on civilian nuclear co-operation between the US and Vietnam on Tuesday. The agreement would allow US firms into Vietnam’s expanding market for nuclear power. The US and Vietnamese governments reached the agreement last October and it was approved by President Barack Obama in February this year.
Morning Star 24th ~July 2014 read more »
South Africa
South Africa has confirmed its commitment to nuclear power, allocating ZAR850 million ($81 million) – over 10% of its energy ministry’s budget – to research and development. This is in addition to the government’s continued support for the procurement of 9600 MWe of nuclear power, energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said during her budget speech on 21 July.
World Nuclear News 23rd July 2014 read more »
Biomass
The Department of Energy and Climate Change has reversed its decision to exclude Drax Group from receiving an enhanced subsidy package to help fund the conversion of one of its coal-fired generating units to biomass. The volte-face by the government department follows a successful legal challenge by the operator of the UK’s biggest power station to a decision by the DECC in April to exclude it from receiving a £1.3bn investment contract. A high court decision last week upheld Drax’s complaint that the department had acted unfairly in reversing an earlier decision to provisionally accept two of the station’s six generation units as eligible for new incentives to encourage a switch from burning coal to imported wood pellets and other renewable energy sources.
FT 23rd July 2014 read more »
Drax’s hopes of regaining a coveted subsidy contract for its biomass conversion plans were buoyed on Wednesday night when ministers admitted they would have to reinstate the funding unless they win an appeal court challenge.
Telegraph 23rd July 2014 read more »
Burning wood to generate electricity can produce as many of the carbon dioxide emissions responsible for climate change as a coal-fired power station, an energy department study seen by the Financial Times has found. But the report also shows that under certain conditions it is possible to burn some types of wood waste in a way that produces fewer emissions than either a coal or gas power plant. The report, co-authored by Professor David MacKay, the department’s chief scientific adviser, will add to the debate over the subsidies paid to power stations such as Yorkshire’s Drax, which is converting some of its boilers to burn wood pellets imported from the US instead of coal.
FT 23rd July 2014 read more »
Burning wood to produce electricity can produce lower carbon emissions than other fuels, but only under tightly controlled conditions, a report for the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change has found.
Guardian 23rd July 2014 read more »
Renewables – Wind
The European wind industry has lowered its forecasts for the amount of new wind energy capacity that the EU is expected to install through to 2020, blaming the financial crisis and policy uncertainty for a reduction in its expectations for the sector. The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) today published three new potential growth scenarios, revising its previous estimate that 230GW of capacity would be operational by 2020. EWEA’s new central scenario expects 192GW of wind capacity to be installed by the end of the decade, capable of meeting 14.9 per cent of electricity consumption. Under the central scenario, the trade body has almost halved its forecasts for offshore wind, from 40GW to 23.5GW of the total.
Business Green 23rd July 2014 read more »
Scottish ministers have approved two wind farm projects that together could power more than 100,000 homes. One is a 54-turbine extension to energy firm SSE’s existing Clyde wind farm in South Lanarkshire. The other project is a new 23-turbine farm in South Ayrshire, proposed by Scottish Power Renewables. The Scottish government said the two projects would deliver community benefits of more than £28m over 25 years. The extension to the Clyde wind farm, which is located to the east of Abington, will generate up to an additional 171MW, enough to power more than 76,000 homes. This will bring the total generating capacity of the wind farm to 512MW. The Dersalloch wind farm, in South Ayrshire will have a maximum generating capacity of 69MW, enough to power the equivalent of about 32,500 homes.
BBC 23rd July 2014 read more »
Renewables – wave
A WAVE energy firm has entered discussions with salmon producers to see if its technology could help power offshore fish farms. AWS Ocean Energy, which is based in Inverness, has now completed a deployment and initial testing phase of a half-scale version of its AWS-III wave power generator in waters off Lyness on Orkney.
Herald 23rd July 2014 read more »
Energy Efficiency
European Commissioners have agreed the EU should cut its energy consumption 30 per cent by 2030, in a bid to slash carbon emissions and boost energy security in response to the escalating security crisis in Ukraine.
Business Green 23rd July 2014 read more »
BBC 23rd July 2014 read more »
Guardian 23rd July 2014 read more »
Greenpeace has criticised a European Commission plan on energy efficiency released today for failing to respond to Europe’s energy import dependence and the challenge of climate change. The Commission’s plan backs a 30 per cent energy efficiency target for 2030, completing the Commission’s trio of proposed 2030 climate and energy targets. The plan does not specify whether the target should be binding or not. Member States are still divided on the climate and energy targets ambition and whether they should be binding. EU leaders will take a decision at their October Summit.
Greenpeace 23rd July 2014 read more »
Environmental campaigners from Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace criticised the new target. According to Friends of the Earth Europe, the decision to recommend a 30% target ignores the European Commission’s own analysis, which shows a higher target of 40% for 2030 would bring greater environmental and economic benefits. The 40% model sees gas imports fall by 40%, rather than 22% under the current proposals. It has called on the European Parliament, which in January voted for a 40% energy reduction target, to push for more ambitious measures.
Edie 23rd July 2014 read more »
The EU should aim to cut its energy use 30 per cent by 2030, the European Commission said today, despite rumoured attempts to weaken the goal to 27 per cent. Green NGOs are arguing that’s still not very ambitious. They say a higher goal of 35 or 40 per cent would have been more beneficial in terms of reducing reliance on Russian gas, boosting growth, creating jobs and cutting consumer energy bills. But if it’s such a good idea why has the commission gone for a lower target? In our analysis of the announcement we’ve dissected the competing explanations of what’s going on.
Carbon Brief 23rd July 2014 read more »
Brussels unveiled a 30 per cent energy efficiency target on Wednesday aimed at weaning Europe off Russian gas, but appeased opponents by stopping short of demanding that the goal be obligatory. After months of talks that pitted Poland and Britain against German-led advocates of tougher targets, the European Commission opted for a compromise: setting a slightly bolder goal to burn less fuel, while staying silent on whether it should be binding. At issue in the energy efficiency debate is not just Europe’s policy response to the fuel supply dilemmas raised by the Ukraine crisis, but a fight over the uneven financial burden of meeting mandatory goals. There is also a policy question over whether efficiency targets are needed at all. While the commission recommendation sets the marker for the future debate, the target needs the unanimous backing of EU states if it is to be adopted or fleshed out in legislation. EU governments are working towards a self-imposed October deadline to decide 2030 climate and energy policy.
FT 23rd July 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
A call has been made for Scotland’s biggest power station to be replaced amid revelations it is among the top-polluting plants in the EU. Dunfermline West MP Thomas Docherty said securing a replacement for Longannet in Fife would be one of his top priorities after September’s independence referendum. He claimed the 45-year-old plant at Kincardine was approaching the end of its life and said it was “critically important” that progress was made towards a new one.
Dundee Courier 23rd July 2014 read more »
There is a potential storm on the horizon of China’s energy policy: coal-to-gas. There could be 50 coal-to-gas projects operational within the next decade, producing 225 billion cubic metres of synthetic natural gas [SNG] per year, if all of the planned ones go ahead, according to comprehensive new research by Greenpeace China. These 50 would emit around 1.087 billion tons of CO2 per year if they are developed, according to the new analysis. To put this in perspective, it is around one eighth of China’s CO2 emissions in 2011 (8.71 billion tons), and much more than the CO2 cuts from coal control measures by 2020 (655 million tons).
Energy Desk 23rd July 2014 read more »
The close relationship between the fracking company Cuadrilla and the British Geological Survey (BGS) has been revealed by a cache of emails in which executives discuss attending a Leonard Cohen concert together. The exchanges, between the private firm hoping to exploit the UK’s shale gas resources and the public body tasked with providing the Government with impartial advice on the safety of the controversial extraction technique, were made in the months leading up to the disclosure of the UK’s reserves last year. The correspondence, which has been redacted to protect the identities of the employees involved, was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Greenpeace, which says it wants to “open up the relationship between energy companies and the Government”.
Independent 22nd July 2014 read more »
