Electricity Market Reform
There is a lot of electricity market reform happening in Europe at the moment. There is also a lot of discussion as to whether these reforms are necessary, inadequate, or simply misguided. However, it is less clear that these discussions represent true engagement regarding a well-defined and well understood set of issues. The territory is littered with terms such as ‘market reform’, ‘market failure’, ‘central planning’, ‘the internal energy market’ and ‘capacity payments’ that are poorly defined and yet seem capable of arousing passionately held beliefs. Wouldn’t it be great if we could identify some common ground from which to build a coherent pan-European debate? There must be some areas of consensus that we can use to define the challenge we face and help us to explore potential solutions.
IGov 24th April 2013 read more »
Hinkley
Lay-offs at EDF’s Hinkley Point C development project are a sign that the whole scheme could be on the verge of collapse, according to local campaigners this week.
Burnham-on-sea.com 24th April 2013 read more »
Question marks about the prospects of the massive Hinkley C nuclear reactor build in Somerset emerged yesterday as EDF revealed it is temporarily cutting the number of people working on the project.
Western Daily Press 24th April 2013 read more »
The sluggish progress of negotiations between the government and EDF over a guaranteed electricity price for the Hinkley Point nuclear plant is likely to result in staff layoffs. A statement on the French company’s website announced yesterday that “as part of good project management, and to control costs, EDF Energy has taken steps to refocus its activities at its Hinkley Point C project”.
Business Green 24th April 2013 read more »
Energy Business Review 24th April 2013 read more »
Sizewell
PROPOSALS for a third power station on the Suffolk coast have been struck by another potential hammer blow after developers announced spending cuts and job losses at a plant planned for the South West.
East Anglian Daily Times 24th April 2013 read more »
EDF Energy says it remains committed to Sizewell C despite withdrawing a “significant” number of workers from another proposed nuclear development.
Eastern Daily Press 23rd April 2013 read more »
Wylfa
A new £10bn nuclear power station on Anglesey has “enormous potential” to spearhead efforts to transform the island into an energy hub, the First Minister has claimed. Assembly Members voted in support of a Conservative motion welcoming Hitachi’s £10bn investment to build a nuclear facility on the Wylfa site on the island. In the Senedd on Wednesday, Carwyn Jones said there could be a peak of 6,000 jobs on the site of the project. He said Hitachi – which said the deal marked the start of a 100-year commitment to the UK for the Japanese firm – had earmarked the Horizon project as its best in the UK.
Wales Online 24th April 2013 read more »
Chernobyl
Three special interviews on the legacy of Chernobyl and the implications to Fukushima and the future of the people of Japan: Chernobyl survivor Bonnie Kouneva, who as a 16-year-old lived in Bulgaria, 800 miles away from the nuclear disaster… but not far enough. Dr. Alexei Yablokov, who compiled over 5,000 research papers in multiple languages for the book, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, as well as co-founding Greenpeace, Russia. Dr. Janette Sherman, known for her work with Joseph Mangano as well as editing the English translation of Alexei Yablokov’s book.
Nuclear Hotseat 23rd April 2013 read more »
After the apocalypse: Haunting photographs show the sprawling ruins of Chernobyl 27 years after nuclear disaster.
Daily Mail 24th April 2013 read more »
Supply Chain
Sheffield Forgemasters has gained more than £2 million of funding from the Government to boost its nuclear-power capabilities. The money — from the Technology Strategy Board, the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council — will be used on two projects.
Machinery Market 24th April 2013 read more »
Hopes are rising that Britain’s stalled civil nuclear power programme could be kick started later this year, opening up long promised opportunities for the Sheffield City Region’s advanced manufacturing sector. According to Energy UK chief executive Angela Knight, legislation due to go through parliament this summer could end the uncertainty that has bedevilled the programme and resulted in some potential developers getting cold feet. Mrs Knight was speaking in Sheffield during a visit to encourage local authorities and construction contractors to play their part in new initiatives to reduce consumption and cut their energy bills.
Sheffield Star 24th April 2013 read more »
Companies
The recent overhaul of Spain’s energy sector weighed on first-quarter earnings at Iberdrola, Spain’s largest power utility by sales, as the country’s power companies face further regulatory uncertainty ahead of a likely reform to come as early as this week.
FT 24th April 2013 read more »
ENERGY giant Iberdrola felt the weight of legislative measures to improve domestic energy efficiency in the UK as it posted a 14.1% fall in first-quarter earnings to €878 million (£750m). The ScottishPower owner said “front-loaded” costs involved in meeting the latest Government drive to reduce home energy bills had been the biggest factor affecting its the performance in the UK, where earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) fell 13.8% to €510.7m.The firm said commitments imposed by the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO), which involves energy companies contributing to the cost of measures to reduce domestic energy bills, was the single biggest influence on the performance. It is understood it spent $42m on these commitments over the period, but added that their impact would lessen over the remainder of the year.
Herald 25th April 2013 read more »
Plutonium
Britain is going to take ownership of 2,950 kg of waste plutonium that it has been storing at Sellafield nuclear facility for European companies and may reprocess it into fuel for a new generation of nuclear plants yet to be built, officials said. Britain is home to more spent civilian plutonium than any other country in the world. The Office for Nuclear Regulation said that as of December 2011 Britain was storing 118.2 tons of plutonium, of which 27.9 tons is owned by foreign entities. Now London wants to recycle some of the stored substance into mixed oxide fuel (MOX), to be used for a new generation of nuclear power stations, which are currently under discussion.
Russia Today 24th April 2013 read more »
Proliferation
Alistair Burt, FCO Minister: Signatories to the treaty recognised this at the 2010 NPT Review Conference, where they agreed a five-year action plan to address each of the three so-called ‘pillars’ of the NPT – progress on disarmament by existing nuclear weapon states, preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons to others and supporting the peaceful use of nuclear energy. With just two years left before the deadline we set ourselves, there is still much work to be done. The backdrop for last year’s NPT Preparatory Committee, or PrepCom, was continued concern over Iran’s nuclear programme and, of course, North Korea’s failed satellite launches using ballistic missile technology. Since then, the attention on nuclear weapons has only increased. Iran continues to develop its nuclear programme and remains unwilling to respond to international concerns. But more pronounced still have been North Korea’s recent actions.
Huffington Post 24th April 2013 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
The Obama administration’s 2014 defense budget, with its proposal to cut $460m from nuclear non-proliferation activities and use that money to pay for new features on its B61 tactical nuclear bombs, has sparked heated debate. Is the modernization desperately needed or irrelevant goldplating? Is the administration undercutting its own non-proliferation agenda for domestic politics, or making a smart investment in the deterrent of the future? Unfortunately, by and large, these are the wrong questions. The right questions are these: how do those bombs fit into US national security strategy; and wherever it is that they fit, is their cost proportionate to their benefits?
Guardian 24th April 2013 read more »
Iraq
Has this Iraq war nurse been fatally poisoned by radioactive dust from our own bombs?
Daily Mail 25th April 2013 read more »
Japan
One of the many outrageous scandals surrounding the Fukushima nuclear crisis is the way the people of Japan have had to bail out TEPCO, the utility whose negligence allowed the accident to happen. Just this week we’ve seen how TEPCO are refusing to repay the 10.5 billion yen ($106 million) it cost the Japanese government to conduct decontamination work around the damaged Fukushima reactors. Who will pay if TEPCO continue to refuse to honour their obligations? The Japanese people, of course. When it comes to nuclear power, it’s always the people who pay and the companies that profit.
Greenpeace 24th April 2013 read more »
North Korea
A nuclear monitoring station in Japan has recorded what could be the first radioactive noble gases from February’s nuclear test in North Korea. The station in Takasaki, about 1,000km from North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site, is operated by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, which made the announcement yesterday.
Guardian 24th April 2013 read more »
Iran
Hassan Rowhani was considered an early frontrunner in the runup to the 2005 Iranian presidential election, before eventually deciding not to run. The former nuclear negotiator’s entry into the 2013 election, then, carries a hint of deja vu. Leading the Iranian delegation in the 2003-05 nuclear talks with Europe, Rowhani took Iran the nearest it has come to a substantive diplomatic agreement with the west since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Nearly a decade later, could a Rowhani presidency lead to a diplomatic breakthrough, easing Iran back from punitive sanctions and the possibility of US or Israeli attack?
Guardian 24th April 2013 read more »
China
China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), said the initial design of the ACP1000, the country’s indigenous advanced pressurized water nuclear reactor has passed an authoritative industry evaluation. The evaluation was carried out by nearly 40 experts from relevant departments and industry associations, reported Xinhua. The team following the test said that the technology and safety index of the ACP1000 are on par with the world’s third generation of nuclear reactors and the reactor can be completely designed and built in China.
Energy Business Review 24th April 2013 read more »
Turkey
A consortium of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France’s Areva are on track to win a deal to build a $20 billion nuclear power station in Turkey, a report said on Wednesday.
AFP 24th April 2013 read more »
Renewables
Waste oil and fat from restaurants and takeaways will be used to power a new electricity plant in east London. Currently, excess fat and oil collects in sewers, forming masses called ‘fatbergs’, which have to be flushed out by sewage workers. Thames Water plans to install ‘fat traps’ directly under sinks in restaurants which it will then collect and use at the plant.
Guardian 24th April 2013 read more »
A Devon councillor has branded solar farms as being like concentration camps after the latest plans to install panels in the countryside was revealed.
Telegraph 24th April 2013 read more »
Biomass
The Treasury is to underpin a £75m loan for the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, marking the first project to be financed using the Government’s £40bn infrastructure guarantee scheme. The loan will be used to part-finance a £700m project to convert three of the six plants at the 4000MW Drax plant to greener biomass fuels. The plant is Britain’s biggest power station, supplying 7pc of the UK’s electricity needs.
Telegraph 24th April 2013 read more »
FT 24th April 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
If you are considering making your home more energy efficient, consider getting a Green Deal assessment. A trained and accredited assessor will look at your property, recommend improvements and indicate if these will pay for themselves via reduced energy bills.
A Green Deal provider will talk to you about whether the scheme is right for your home and give you a quote for the work. You can get as many quotes as you like from accredited providers and the provider you choose will write a Green Deal plan for you. The contract sets out what work will be done and the repayment schedule. The provider will then get an accredited Green Deal Installer to do the work. Your repayments will automatically be added to your electricity bill and should be no more than you expect to save.
Guardian 24th April 2013 read more »
Climate
A parliamentary advisory committee has accused the Government of being only “half-committed” to low-carbon energy generation, warning that the UK is likely to miss emissions reduction targets as a result.David Kennedy, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), said Britain needs a huge investment in renewable, or clean, power infrastructure if it is to hit its target of a 50 per cent cut in CO2 emissions by 2025 on 1990 levels. He said potential investors in low-carbon energy – from wind-turbine blade makers to nuclear-power project developers – “need to know there is a market” for clean power. Unless they are confident about their likely returns – for example through guaranteed subsidies and the Government’s commitment to hitting renewable energy targets – they are unwilling to risk investment.
Independent 25th April 2013 read more »
While the scale of these so-called “imported emissions” is less well understood, new research released today by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) estimates they have driven the UK’s overall carbon footprint up by around 10 per cent over the past two decades. This increase in overall emissions is in stark contrast to the official figures for the UK’s domestic greenhouse gas emissions, which according to the CCC have fallen by 19 per cent over the past 20 years.
Business Green 24th April 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Six activists from Greenpeace have boarded a coal ship leaving Australian waters in a direct action aimed at curbing coal exports. The activists, from several different countries, boarded the Korean-owned MV Meister at 7am on Wednesday. The ship is carrying thermal coal loaded from Abbot Point in Queensland.
Guardian 25th April 2013 read more »
