Energy Policy
Britain will no longer be forced by the European Union to build wind and solar farms under a climate change deal which gives member states flexibility over how they cut emissions. The agreement means that all 28 member states have accepted emissions targets for 2030 which are similar in scope to the target Britain had already set itself. In practice, this means Britain could decide to cut emissions by building nuclear power stations and adding carbon capture systems to coal and gas plants, rather than building more wind turbines. Germany, which has invested heavily in renewable energy and exports wind turbines, had wanted binding 2030 renewable energy targets for each country. In what is seen as a classic Brussels fudge, the deal stated that 27 per cent of the EU’s energy should come from renewable sources by 2030 but that this would not be binding on individual member states. Another target for a 27 per cent improvement in energy efficiency was seen as even weaker as it was made clear that this would be optional.
Times 25th Oct 2014 read more »
Britain will no longer be forced to build wind and solar farms from 2020, under a new EU climate change deal that leaves countries free to choose how to cut their carbon emissions. EU leaders vowed on Friday to cut Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2030, against 1990 levels, in an agreement that ministers say will bring the rest of Europe in line with the UK’s existing commitments. Following UK lobbying, the deal does not impose binding national targets for renewable energy or energy efficiency. Current legally-binding targets require the UK to generate 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 – in practice requiring about 30 per cent of the power sector to come from renewable sources. Critics say this has forced the UK down an unnecessarily expensive and unsightly method of going green by building heavily-subsidised wind farms, solar farms and wood-burning biomass plants.
Telegraph 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Dounreay
New underground containers for radioactive waste at Dounreay have been highly praised at Scotland’s engineering “Oscars”. The Caithness plant’s low level waste containment facility was given a commendation at the Saltire Society’s civil engineering awards. The event highlights excellence in Scottish civil engineering. The vaults have been designed to house up to 175,000 cubic metres of low level radioactive waste from the plant’s decommissioning.
Press and Journal 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Hartlepool/Heysham
Two reactors at Heysham power station which were shut down after cracks appeared could be restarted by the end of the year, EDF Energy said. The reactors at Heysham 1 and Hartlepool power stations were shut in August following a routine inspection. They could return to service at 75-80% power because defects such as that found at Heysham 1 “can only develop into cracks at very high temperatures”. Each power station has 16 boilers supported by a boiler spine component, where the crack was found.
Lancaster Guardian 23rd Oct 2014 read more »
New Nukes
Doug Parr: being pro or against nuclear energy has little to do with taking sides in a scientific dispute, and a lot more to do with picking the best solution to a multi-faceted socio-economic issue of energy resources and politics. Accepting that there is no silver-bullet solution to energy supply or nutritional deficiencies, what we are left with is a range of more or less good options from which to pick the best and most effective. If you rank these options on the basis of feasibility, timing, costs and deliverability, neither nuclear energy nor GM food are likely to score very highly. Nuclear energy comes at continually high costs, requires long construction times, has risks of serious accident and weapons proliferation, and leaves us with the unsolved and costly problems of radioactive waste – so it is a far less attractive option than renewables and energy efficiency.
New Scientist 23rd Oct 2014 read more »
Utilities
The chief executive of GDF Suez is at the centre of a political storm over reports that the French energy group has set aside almost €21 million for his pension. Gérard Mestrallet, who this week appointed a deputy who is expected to succeed him in 2016, will receive an executive pension paid by the company of almost €1 million a year, it has emerged. The disclosure created a new headache for President Hollande, who is now under pressure to act on executive pay three weeks after Manuel Valls, the prime minister, claimed to be at the head of a pro-business government in a speech in London.
Times 25th Oct 2014 read more »
Supply Chain
Britain’s Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC) has taken delivery of two new machining centres. The centre said the new facilities were funded by a collaborative network of similar manufacturing research centres backed by the UK government and known as the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. One machine is a Soraluce FX12000 horizontal milling and boring centre that can work on parts such as decommissioning waste flasks, pumps, valves, wind turbine hubs and undersea components. The other is a Dörries Contumat vertical turning/milling lathe. This can work on parts up to five metres in diameter and three metres in height, including full-scale reactor internal parts as well as offshore well heads and wind turbine hub connectors.
World Nuclear News 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Advanced Manufacturing 24th Oct 2014 read more »
The Nuclear AMRC has joined forces with the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) to help more than 300 small manufacturers prepare to seize the opportunities of the UK’s rapidly developing £60 billion civil nuclear new build sector and £1.5 billion a year decommissioning programme.
Advanced Manufacturing 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Europe
The 20-20-20 benchmarks for 2020 – of 20% CO2 cuts, renewable energy share and efficiency gains – had appeared to offer global leadership. Reciprocal pledges were expected to allow a dynamic new US president to galvanise a coherent response to climate change. The 40-27-27 goals for 2030 slow the EU’s pace of change and extend to renewable energy the one clear failure of the 2008 package – a ‘non-binding’ energy efficiency goal that the bloc looks set to miss. The one binding emissions cut in the package is a formula that negotiators hope to apply at the Paris climate summit in 2015, now talked of as a last chance to save the whole business of international climate talks under the auspices of the UN. The EU’s 40% target has already been dismissed as “too little, too late” to meet the 2C target by the vice-chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Prof Jim Skea, who says that it will involve a superhuman effort between 2030-2050 that defies models of cost-effective decarbonisation. But another problem is that emerging economies such as China – now the world’s biggest CO2 emitter – are unlikely to make these kinds of efforts in the absence of proof that nations more responsible for historic emissions, are doing their fair share – and helping to create an economic opportunity for others as they go. The sad logic of the package agreed in Brussels on Thursday night is that Europe may not be the only COP party today looking at the short-term costs of decarbonisation and asking ‘why me?’.
Guardian 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Q&A on European targets.
Carbon Brief 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Poland – coal
Poland’s economy is based on over 80 per cent of our electricity being produced by domestic coal-fired power stations. At home, our politicians always justify blocking the EU climate and energy policy because of this. The coal sector is huge, with over 100,000 thousand miners and over 240 well organised mining trade unions. These groups have significant political power. During our new Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz’s initial speech to MPs, around 4,000 coal miners protested in front of the Parliament building. Demonstrators wanted to “remind Ms Kopacz about them and their families”. They also demanded she maintain the economy’s dependency on coal; vetoes the new EU climate and energy package and stops the import of Russian coal. They expect the government to bail out the coal-companies from debt, and they know they have a big chance of success.
Energy Post 23rd Oct 2014 read more »
Fusion
Clean, abundant, sustainable and commercially viable energy from nuclear fusion is the stuff of science fiction. Lockheed Martin’s announcement this week that it plans to produce a fusion reactor that will fit on the back of a truck in just ten years is yet more fantasy.
Greenpeace 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Renewables – storage
It wasn’t that long ago–what, just seven, eight years ago now–that solar power was considered, justifiably, an expensive niche technology. Sure, environmentally solar power has always reigned supreme and there were enough people wanting clean energy for their homes to keep the industry in business, but solar was just too costly for mainstream use. But behind the scenes, the technology was improving and its costs began dropping. China went into solar in a big way, further reducing costs through mass production. Germany’s long switch to renewables, accelerated by Fukushima, meant another giant market for solar, and solar’s costs didn’t just drop over the past several years, they plummeted. A barrier to widespread rooftop solar installation is that, without backup storage, home solar doesn’t provide power 24/7. And such storage has so far been expensive, and mostly not available at all. In an article titled, Renewable Energy Storage Gains Critical Mass, Charles Thurston writes, “A host of U.S. renewable energy storage executives recently gathered here in the Silicon Valley are referring to the rapid expansion of the storage industry by comparing it to the solar power industry six or eight years ago, before that companion sector became the juggernaut it is now.”
Green World 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Renewables – solar
Marks & Spencer is building the UK’s largest array of rooftop solar panels on its distribution centre in Castle Donington. Spread across 900,000 sq ft with more than 24,000 photovoltaic panels, the system will generate nearly enough energy in daylight hours to power the distribution centre which handles all the goods M&S sells via its online store. The retailer’s investment in solar follows a trend towards investing in renewable energy among British retailers. Tesco topped the distribution centre for its now defunct US venture Fresh & Easy with the country’s largest rooftop solar panel in 2007 while Sainsbury’s is the largest rooftop solar operator in Europe. Sainsbury’s will have installed 170,000 panels above stores and distribution centres by the spring. The schemes help retailers keep control of energy costs, make unused space productive and meet environmental promises which consumers and government increasingly expect businesses to live up to.
Guardian 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News. From community energy to supermarket solar.
Microgenscotland 24th Oct 2014 read more »
Demand Management
So here’s the deal. Hand over control of your home’s heating and power to an outside company. In return, your bills will be slashed and you should get a warm glow from helping to keep the nation’s lights on. Attracted? Appalled? Next month, Britons will be able to choose. Some experts believe this is the shape of energy consumption to come, putting into practice one of the better ideas among the controversial proposals advanced by Owen Paterson, former environment secretary – to ease strains on the national grid and cut the need to build new power stations by flattening fluctuations in demand. The revolutionary new deal is based on the fact that, unknown to most of us, the price of electricity changes at half-hourly intervals throughout the day, depending on how much of what is produced is actually consumed.
Telegraph 24th Oct 2014 read more »
