NuGen
CHINA’S state nuclear technology developer is in talks to buy land earmarked for new atomic reactors in Sellafield, Cumbria. It is understood that State Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC) will go ahead only if it receives assurances from Whitehall that it will one day be able to build Chinese-designed nuclear stations in Britain. The deal was raised in talks last week with Ed Davey, the energy secretary, who is on a 10-day visit to China. SNPTC is building the first version of its new reactor, the CAP 1400, in China. It is understood the company wants a government pledge that it will help guide the new design through Britain’s regulatory approval process. SNPTC is considering joining the Nugen project, which was set up in 2009 by Iberdrola, the owner of Scottish Power, along with France’s GDF, and SSE, the utility. Nugen bought a large parcel of land next to the Sellafield toxic waste dump with plans to build up to six reactors. SSE pulled out two years later. Iberdrola informed GDF last year that it too would no longer proceed. Toshiba’s Westinghouse has recently entered talks to buy out Iberdrola. SNPTC would likely be a purely financial partner in Nugen.
Sunday Times 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Bryony Worthington: Reactions to Ed Miliband’s pledge to reset the energy market and introduce a 20-month price freeze while new arrangements are put in place has been met with predictable opposition by the companies it will affect. But there is no need to panic.
Business Green 26th Sept 2013 read more »
Jessica Lennard: Whether there’s a problem with the energy market is now largely a case of semantics: Labour say it’s dead, the government say it’s just resting. Whether the government admits it or not however, Electricity Market Reform (EMR) comprises a highly interventionist set of policies required because the market was no longer fit for purpose. But EMR was originally conceived (pre-austerity) to address a different problem – the need for decarbonisation and investment in new generation. The fact EMR wouldn’t alter the market structure itself, and that it failed to dovetail with the Retail Market Review, only became problematic as cost of living rocketed up the political agenda. It was Labour who seized on the premise that ‘real EMR’ had to address competition and bills, and that this necessarily spanned retail as well as generation markets
Business Green 26th Sept 2013 read more »
When Ed Miliband announced his ridiculous back-of-an-envelope-in-a-focus-group energy price freeze at Labour conference last week, Cameron’s team in Downing Street said, “That’s a ridiculous back-of-an-envelope-in-a-focus-group policy.” And so it is. But that is hardly the point. It is no use Cameron’s people complaining that Miliband’s policy is “just mad” because it will “bankrupt the energy companies who we will need to build all this infrastructure”. It is no use trying to explain that profit margins in gas and electricity are not high – partly because margins did rise at the end of last year and start of this one, from being a bit lower than those typical of supermarket companies to being a bit higher, according to Ofgem, the regulator. It is no use trying to explain that when world energy prices go up, British retail prices go up, and when world prices go down, British retail prices go down, too. it was Gove who understood the politics of Miliband’s opportunism. Instead of trying to explain how markets work, how investors are attracted to Britain and how jobs are created, he said on BBC Question Time that Ed Miliband was right. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. But he was right to say that Miliband was right, even though Miliband was wrong. Miliband was right, Gove continued, to say that energy bills are expensive and that the Government should do all it could to try to keep them down – he just wasn’t quite sure that a price freeze had been “thought through”.
Independent 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Christoper Booker: It is thanks to the Labour leader that we are paying dearly for the Climate Change Act – easily the most expensive law ever put through Parliament.
Telegraph 28th Sept 2013 read more »
It is not every day that the chairman of one of Britain’s biggest businesses is blind-sided by the Leader of the Opposition. But that was the position Sir Roger Carr found himself in on Tuesday when Ed Miliband, son of a Marxist academic and the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next Prime Minister, announced that he would be introducing a policy thick with the whiff of Eau d’1970s price controls. So when Robert Peston, the BBC’s business editor, called to seek Sir Roger’s response, the FTSE veteran was more than ready. “If prices were to be controlled against a background of rising costs it would simply not be economically viable for Centrica, or indeed any other energy supplier, to continue to operate,” Sir Roger said. “We are all concerned about rising prices and the impact on consumers, but we also have a very real responsibility that we find supplies to make sure the lights stay on.” Suppliers say the ECO scheme – just one of a myriad environmental policies – is poorly designed, inefficient and will inevitably drive up bills. Analysts at Citigroup estimate that, all-in, bills could rise a further 50pc by 2020, “mainly due to the impact of government policies, renewables subsidies and network costs”. Peter Atherton, energy analyst at Liberum Capital, has long warned of a potential affordability crisis over the costs of the decarbonisation drive. “The energy consumer is being asked to fund the entire cost of the programme,” he noted earlier this year. “If at any point the consumer becomes unable or unwilling to pay the cost then the decarbonisation policy will fail.”
Telegraph 28th Sept 2013 read more »
On one issue, though, Mr Osborne does have an opportunity. Increases in energy bills are down to wholesale price movements and the ballooning cost of environmental targets, most put in place by one Mr Miliband when he was the energy secretary. Both British Gas and SSE have kept profit margins stable, although they should answer for the apparent lag in bill reductions when wholesale prices fall. The Chancellor should make it clear why bills rise and should announce that he is delaying the over-engineered “ECO” scheme which obliges energy companies to spend £4.5bn by 2015 on insulating people’s homes. Allowing an 18-month delay would take pressure off the bottom line, savings that the energy companies should commit to passing through to bills.
Telegraph 28th Sept 2013 read more »
While my head knows that Ed Miliband’s idea of freezing energy bills could leave us with frozen homes, my heart can’t suppress a cheer at the thought of exacting some petty revenge on companies that have treated so many of us with contempt. Tony Blair’s one-off windfall tax on energy companies in 1997 was shameless; but it was at least a carefully calibrated move designed to raise revenue without spooking investment. Mr Miliband’s proposal for energy price caps, on the other hand, could hardly be better calculated to paralyse the investment desperately needed to fill the gap left by the closure of old power stations. Please do force companies to be more transparent. By all means, find a sophisticated way to separate generation from supply. But don’t offer the public cheap electricity on the never-never. Politicians cannot control the global oil price.
Sunday Times 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Politics
The spread of climate change denial now, sadly, touches government. David Cameron, who once expressed a wish to lead a coalition that would be the “greenest government ever”, has found himself surrounded by Tory colleagues who simply cannot accept that climate change is happening. Two have recently been elevated to important posts. Peter Lilley is now a member of Cameron’s strategy group but is an avowed sceptic who voted against the UK Climate Change Act 2008, while Owen Paterson, another sceptic, has been made environment secretary with responsibility for making the UK resilient to climate change impacts. These are not encouraging developments. Key decisions about shale gas, electricity generation and flood protection will have to be made in the UK in the next year. It is now doubtful we have the right men to do the job. What Britain urgently needs is an unambiguous statement from our government that it recognises very serious changes are now affecting our planet; that we have the will to tackle a growing global catastrophe; and that we are prepared to address difficult, unpopular truths. To date, we have heard nothing.
Observer 28th September 2013 read more »
Companies
Engineer Babcock International is renaming its £270m-turnover civil nuclear division after Henry Cavendish, the 18th-century physicist who discovered hydrogen (right), having been banned from using its own name. In 1995, the FTSE 100 group sold off an energy business which is now in the hands of South Korean conglolmerate Doosan Group. Earlier this year Doosan successfully argued in the High Court that it had an unlimited time licence to use the Babcock name in the civil nuclear sector and that the British group had infringed its trademark. Babcock’s division will now be called Cavendish Nuclear in honour of the fabulously rich aristocrat who published his discovery of “inflammable air” – hydrogen – in 1766.
Independent 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Japan
Reporters in Japan write about rise in birth defects for 2011 — University won’t publish data on malformed babies after many years of doing so; Not releasing figures for Fukushima, other prefectures — Expert: This is ridiculous.
Energy News 26th Sept 2013 read more »
Iran
The smile offensive conducted by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani at the UN has not been greeted with smiles in Israel. While welcoming a “genuine diplomatic solution” to the Iranian nuclear challenge, the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, this week warned the world not to be “fooled by half-measures that merely provide a smokescreen for Iran’s continual pursuit of nuclear weapons”. Iran’s history of deceit on this issue calls for rephrasing President Reagan’s famous reference to the Soviet Union: “Do not trust but verify.” Give Rouhani a chance, but test him by his deeds. Israel neither trusts Rouhani nor fully relies on President Obama’s resolve.
Guardian 27th Sept 2013 read more »
Express 28th Sept 2013 read more »
US
The second in command at the military command in charge of all US nuclear war-fighting forces is a suspect in a case involving counterfeit gambling chips at a western Iowa casino and has been suspended from his duties.
Telegraph 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Guardian 28th Sept 2013 read more »
Daily Mail 28th Sept 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
The Coalition is considering agreeing to the demands to reform the controversial home insulation scheme, the Energy Companies Obligation, in a deal that could avert steep price rises in the run-up to the next general election. Centrica, owner of British Gas, and SSE are pushing for an 18-month reprieve to meet targets under the ECO scheme, arguing that more time to implement the costly programme would ease the financial burden on customers. Ministers are under added pressure to try to halt bill increases in the wake of Labour leader Ed Miliband’s pledge to cap prices. They are believed to be “receptive” to the companies’ suggestions. The option of an extension is expected to be included in a consultation document on the future of the ECO, likely to be published early next year. On Saturday, George Osborne opened the door to reducing the impact of green policies on bills. He said that the Government had to keep a “very close eye on affordability” and that Britain should not be “in front of the rest of the world” in tackling climate change.
Telegraph 28th Sept 2013 read more »
Renewables
A bright summer has driven up the returns households can make from solar panels on their roofs. And despite cuts in the amounts paid for the electricity generated, which is paid through a levy on all energy bills, the industry claims returns of more than 12pc are still possible. But the bold promises from salesman have also led to a rise in complaints from those who feel let down.
Telegraph 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Two environmental campaigners are due to appear in court in Murmansk, Russia, today after being arrested during a Greenpeace protest on an Arctic oil rig. Anthony Perrett, 32, and Frank Hewetson, 45, are among 30 people, including four other Britons, taken into custody seven days ago when armed Russian officials stormed their vessel, Arctic Sunrise. Along with other members of the group, Mr Hewetson, a father of two and logistics co-ordinator from London, and Mr Perrett, an activist from Newport, Gwent, are facing two months on remand without bail while Russian investigators continue their investigation.
Independent 29th Sept 2013 read more »
