Energy Bill
BRITAINs plans for new nuclear power stations have suffered a blow with a warning from Centrica that a subsidy scheme is illegal. Centrica, the British partner in the consortium building the plants, has told ministers that proposed letters of comfort would break rules on state aid. The letters, in which the government will promise to pay a guaranteed price for power, were a key part of last weeks energy bill. Ministers hoped the pledges meant to tide industry over until a full-blown subsidy regime starts in 2014 would allow the EDF Energy/Centrica consortium to start work on time.
Sunday Times 27th May 2012 more >>
The governments solution to all these problems is to replace a deregulated market with a command-and-control one. It has stated how much it expects each renewable technology to generate by 2020, as well as how many nuclear plants it wants, and where. It will create long-term contracts for supplying low-carbon energy, setting a minimum price for solar power, another for offshore wind and so on. The hope is that this will give energy firms the assurances needed to invest in new forms of generation. The certainty is that David Camerons Conservative-led coalition government is rowing hard against the free market. This is odd, and wrong. The energy business is changing fast. The price of solar power has fallen; the price of oil has soared. Shale gas is booming. Wave power, carbon-capture technologies and electricity storage could all prove revolutionary. All the more reason to let investors, not Mr Cameron, pick the winners.
Economist 26th May 2012 more >>
The prospect of a new nuclear age has moved closer with a boost to plans to build new power stations and deal with the waste from the old ones.
BBC 25th May 2012 more >>
THE British government’s energy reforms have prompted alarm that Scotland could lose control over the setting of subsidy levels for £46 billion of renewable projects. The draft Energy Bill, unveiled this week, aims to reduce carbon emissions and boost the supply of clean energy by driving billions of pounds of investment into new nuclear plants and renewables. There are warnings, however, that Westminster could wrest control of renewable incentives after 2017 when a lucrative subsidy regime – the Renewables Obligation – runs out. Energy observers and environmental campaigners fear uncertainty over future subsidy levels could jeopardise an estimated £46 billion worth of renewable electricity projects that are in the pipeline in Scotland. It could also undermine the SNP’s economic case for independence, which rests heavily on income from renewables.
Sunday Times (not online) 27th May 2012 more >>
Radwaste
Professor Stuart Haszeldine of Edinburgh University said West Cumbria was a poor choice for underground storage due to its porous slate rock. He told Channel 4 News: “There is water gushing through cracks in the roof of this cavern underground in West Cumbria. “That same sort of crack allows water to enter into the waste disposal site and that water gradually dissolves the waste and brings it up towards the surface.”
Channel 4 News 26th May 2012 more >>
Scotland
Letter: In Scotland, plans for the expansion of onshore wind will result in the continued industrialisation of large tracts of our natural environment. But the growth of onshore wind will barely compensate for the future closure of compact nuclear plants at Hunterston and Torness, which produce copious quantities of clean energy from small costal sites. Per unit of energy produced, diffuse and intermittent wind also requires vastly more steel and concrete than nuclear.In advocating a nuclear-free future, Polly Higgins is casually discarding the most land and resource-efficient means of displacing carbon from energy production. She may well find herself first in the dock at any future tribunal.
Scotland on Sunday 27th May 2012 more >>
Japan
What passes for normal at the Fukushima Daiichi plant today would have caused shudders among even the most sanguine of experts before an earthquake and tsunami set off the worlds second most serious nuclear crisis after Chernobyl. Fourteen months after the accident, a pool brimming with used fuel rods and filled with vast quantities of radioactive cesium still sits on the top floor of a heavily damaged reactor building, covered only with plastic. The publics fears about the pool have grown in recent months as some scientists have warned that it has the most potential for setting off a new catastrophe, now that the three nuclear reactors that suffered meltdowns are in a more stable state, and as frequent quakes continue to rattle the region.
New York Times 26th May 2012 more >>
Japanese officials tour the stricken Fukushima-Daichii power plant, offering a glimpse inside one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.
Reuters (Video) 26th May 2012 more >>
Japanese environment minister visits the spent fuel pools of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s Number four reactor, which activists say could cause a major nuclear disaster if they spill out in the event of another earthquake.
Telegraph 26th May 2012 more >>
For Japan’s anti-nuclear campaigners Fukushima came as a blessing in (heavy) disguise. In a different way, the same might also be said for Scotland. That was certainly the feeling at last week’s renewable-dominated All-Energy conference in Aberdeen, when a session on the Japanese opportunity was added to the programme. Scotland’s international profile in green technologies, assiduously promoted by the current Scottish Government, suggests new trading possibilities with our oldest friends in the Far East. In the aftermath of Fukushima, as Japan races to adopt renewable technologies, and reaches out to countries which have by choice, not necessity, prioritised green power. Scotland is at the leading edge.
Sunday Herald 27th May 2012 more >>
Iran
Iran has played down a United Nations report that said Iranian nuclear scientists had enriched uranium to a higher-than-expected level. On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported samples taken in February showed particles with enrichment levels of up to 27%, putting Iran closer to making potentially weapons-grade uranium. The IAEA said it was assessing Iran’s explanation that the traces of high-enriched uranium resulted from technical factors. The sample came from Iran’s Fordow facility, buried underground to shield it from air strikes.
Sunday Herald 27th May 2012 more >>
Iran has significantly increased its output of low-enriched uranium and if it was further refined could make at at least five nuclear weapons, according to a US thinktank. The Institute for Science and International Security, which tracks Iran’s nuclear programme, made the analysis on the basis of data in the latest quarterly report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Guardian 26th May 2012 more >>
Coal
A loophole in the UK Government’s new energy bill will allow the coal-fired power station proposed for Hunterston in North Ayrshire to belch out hundreds of millions of tonnes of climate pollution and wreck Scotland’s targets to cut emissions. The hitherto unnoticed get-out clause was slipped in by Westminster after lobbying behind the scenes by the coal industry, and contradicts promises made by Prime Minister David Cameron and the Liberal Democrats. It has been condemned as “utterly ridiculous” and “crazy” by leading environmental groups. Control over energy is not devolved to the Scottish Parliament or Government. The loophole exempts coal stations that adopt government-approved technologies to trap carbon emissions from tough new limits on pollution. But the technologies – known as carbon capture and storage (CCS) – may only cover a proportion of the pollution, and may not work.
Sunday Herald 27th May 2012 more >>
Independent 27th May 2012 more >>
Renewables
Massive reserves of geothermal energy have been found in rocks deep under Britain, with the north and the southwest potentially containing enough heat to generate power for millions of homes. Prince Charles has been among the first to exploit such sources, drilling boreholes to extract heat energy from the ground at his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire and at the Castle of Mey, the late Queen Mother’s summer residence in northern Scotland. Such systems have always been seen as too expensive compared with other sources of renewable energy but now a geological study suggests Britain has enough accessible underground heat to generate up to 20% of its electricity and provide warmth for homes.
Sunday Times 27th May 2012 more >>
German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour – equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity – through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said.
Reuters 26th May 2012 more >>
