Nuclear Subsidy
As the FT reported on Friday, negotiations on the terms for new nuclear have advanced and there is increasing optimism that a deal can be done. The meeting between David Cameron and Francois Hollande in Paris two weeks ago amounted to a declaration of agreement in principle. Just three issues remain to be resolved. Can the project be financed? Can the terms survive full scrutiny and be judged fair to other suppliers? And can the project be delivered on time and on budget? These are not small issues and many in Whitehall want to ensure that they are clearly resolved before an announcement in made. So far that caution is being overruled by the political will to do a deal. Mr Cameron wants a success. Taking the three issues in turn. The simple fact is that EDF cannot finance the deal from its own already stretched balance sheet without jeopardising its overall credit rating. The question of whether EDF is being over-protected will come down to the detailed terms of the agreement. The strike price gets the headlines but the real issue is the distribution of risk – who pays if costs overrun or if there are radical changes in the market which leave nuclear unneeded. Those terms will inspected forensically by other suppliers and by bodies such as the Public Accounts Committee – a degree of scrutiny to which EDF is not always accustomed in France. I would not be surprised to see the government forcing a last minute concession on the strike price – down to £80 per MwH – to convince the sceptics that they have negotiated a tough deal. The third point is the one on which, contrary to the conventional wisdom, I think there is the greatest cause for optimism. EDF in the UK knows that the construction of Hinkley will be a global test of its ability to build new nuclear on time and on budget.
FT 2nd June 2013 read more »
Energy Bill
Over 200 organisations call on MPs to back a power sector decarbonisation target, as Energy Bill debate reopens in Parliament this week. After a lengthy committee stage the Bill will come before Parliament again this week, offering MPs an opportunity to debate the finer details and, crucially, add amendments, before the legislation is sent to the House of Lords. The key debate for green businesses is around the introduction or otherwise of a target to decarbonise the power sector by 2030, which as a result of horse-trading between the Treasury and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey will not immediately feature in the Bill. Instead, the draft Bill gives whoever forms the government after the next election the power to introduce a decarbonisation target at a later date, if they choose to do so. As anyone who tracks the green economy will know, this oversight prompted outrage from green businesses and NGOs and prompted an amendment proposed by Conservative MP Tim Yeo, chair of the influential Energy and Climate Change Committee, and Labour MP Barry Gardiner, which would require the government to introduce the target next year. This week we find out if enough Lib Dem and Conservative MPs are willing to rebel to force the amendment upon the government.
Business Green 3rd June 2013 read more »
Lord Sugar has called on the government to insert a 2030 target for green electricity into the energy bill to end the “prolonged uncertainty” surrounding companies and investors in the energy sector. Mr Yeo’s amendment would force electricity generators to remove coal-fired and gas-fired power stations from their networks over the next 18 years unless they could use technology to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions. The target is backed by the statutory Committee on Climate Change which was set up to force the government to stick to its own carbon reduction targets. Over the weekend, Mr Davey urged MPs to reject the amendment, saying the energy bill in its current form would already lead to a “massive decarbonisation” of the power sector by 2030 through its generous subsidies for nuclear and renewable energy. Friends of the Earth called on MPs to back Mr Yeo’s amendment to prevent a new “dash for gas” by the UK. Andy Atkins, executive director of the green pressure group, said: “The energy bill is simply not fit for purpose unless it does what investors say is needed and commit the UK to clean British energy.”
FT 2nd June 2013 read more »
Alan Sugar: this country needs jobs and the renewable industry could help unlock our crippled manufacturing sector. Whilst places like Germany, India, China and the US continue to offer real incentives to boost green technology through tax credits and serious targets, we have an underfunded Green Deal and chaotic cuts such as those to solar tariffs, which left both customers and businesses out in the cold. Recent reports confirm that we have now slipped to sixth in global attractiveness to green investors, with mixed messages from government on renewable energy undermining confidence. Without a 2030 decarbonisation target the energy bill will be aimless, leaving businesses and potential investors with prolonged uncertainty and no real commitment from the politicians who were supposed to be the ‘greenest government’ ever.
FT 2nd June 2013 read more »
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem energy secretary, is to raise the stakes with a thinly veiled attack on vocal sections of the Conservative party during the debate. In a speech on Monday, Davey says: “Those who argue against all the actions we are taking to reduce emissions, without any serious and viable alternative, are asking us to take a massive gamble with the planet our children will inherit, in the face of all the evidence, against overwhelming odds. No government worth its salt would take that gamble. No political party worth voting for would make that argument.” The energy bill, which has been nearly three years in the making, will determine the shape of Britain’s energy policy for decades to come because it will influence investment decisions over the next five years on infrastructure that will still be operating in 30 years’ time. Under pressure from the Treasury, the government withdrew mooted plans to enshrine a target to decarbonise electricity generation by 2030 in the energy bill, to meet the UK’s climate goals. Yeo tabled an amendment to restore the requirement, but many Tories are opposed as it would involve subsidies for renewable energies, while they prefer a “dash for gas” approach despite warnings that overreliance on imported gas would raise prices to consumers.
Guardian 2nd June 2013 read more »
The Government has been warned of the potential cost of making Britain’s transport network low-carbon by 2050 if it does not find a way to generate electricity from greener sources. Tim Yeo, chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, has written to the Department for Transport asking what plans it has should Britain fail to decarbonise its power plants. The DfT’s plans to cut emissions rely heavily on the assumption that electricity generation will become cleaner and greener by 2030. But Mr Yeo says that might not be the case because of what he claims is a watering down of environmental targets in the Energy Bill.
Times 3rd June 2013 read more »
Despite all the disappointments, Lib Dems have an opportunity to redeem their green credentials on June 4th. The director of Friends of the Earth asks if they’ll seize it. The Lib Dems have spectacularly failed to capitalise on the opportunity. Instead, they’ve managed to deliver at best apologies for, and at worst endorsements of, Osborne’s oil and gas tax breaks, his savage attacks on renewables, his dismantling of energy conservation policies, and his fawning at the feet of the shale gas industry. Senior Lib Dems’ mealy mouthed defence of incentives for the nuclear industry is scarcely believable. “Ah yes”, claims Ed Davey, “but you’re forgetting we’ve secured a trebling of support for renewables up to 2020. And a Green Investment Bank to boot!”. While welcome developments, one is little more than funding to meet a legally binding EU target (risking massive fines if we miss it), and the other is shackled indefinitely by ludicrous borrowing restrictions.
Independent 3rd June 2013 read more »
British manufacturers have accused the Government of failing to shield them from the full weight of its green taxes, leaving them at a disadvantage against European rivals. George Osborne had promised a £250 million annual subsidy to big energy users to protect them from the worst effects of the Government’s green taxes. But the aid package has been delayed by the European Commission, which is considering whether it amounts to unfair state aid. Industry leaders fear it could take months to be implemented and will not be backdated. Heavy industry such as steelmakers and chemicals companies has been hit by the Government’s Carbon Price Floor tax, under which they are charged £16 per ton of carbon emitted for fuel used for power generation. This price floor will increase every year, to reach £30 per ton by the end of the decade – an average of £1.1 million per company.
Daily Mail 2nd June 2013 read more »
Japan
If all of Japan’s nuclear-power plants were running at full capacity, they would provide about 30 percent of electricity, and 11 percent of total energy consumption. With the current shutdowns, nuclear contributes only 2 percent of electricity, with oil and gas filling the gap. Setting aside the question of greenhouse gases and global warming, the economic question is: Who will pay for the growing costs of energy imports? Industry, which consumes about 36 percent of energy, is supposed to lead the recovery, and some of Japan’s export leaders are energy guzzlers. If energy costs rise, the companies that produce the bulk of Japan’s world-class products will either lose out or — to prevent this from happening — move production elsewhere. Either outcome would surely halt Japan’s domestic recovery. Not one part of this story is palatable, whether it is Japan’s glaring dependence on nuclear energy, the slow progress of the search for alternatives, or the inefficiencies of its grid. Yet whatever the future resolution of those problems, Japan has only one viable course of action: It cannot afford not to turn its nuclear-power plants back on.
Bloomberg 2nd June 2013 read more »
Just two years after the Fukushima power station melt-down took virtually its nuclear fleet off-line, Japan is emerging as the world’s largest market for solar power. Analysts at Deutsche Bank last week suggested that Japan will become the biggest market for solar within the next two years, while industry consultant IHS suggested that in revenue terms, Japan will overtake Germany in 2013 with sales of $20 billion of solar modules this calendar year. Data released by the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association on Friday showed that first quarter installations in Japan rose nearly three-fold to 3,809MW, helped by the introduction last July of above-market incentives in the form of feed in tariffs (FiTs).
Renew Economy 2nd June 2013 read more »
Thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators rallied in the capital Tokyo today as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe considers restarting reactors. Organisers said 7,500 people, including Nobel literature laureate Kenzaburo Oe, marched through the capital holding banners reading: “No Nukes: Unevolved Apes Want Nukes.”
Morning Star 2nd June 2013 read more »
RINF 2nd June 2013 read more »
Despite deep-rooted public distrust of nuclear power generation in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, the Abe administration is set to push restarts of idled nuclear reactors as an integral engine of policy to spur economic growth. The Asahi Shimbun obtained a copy of the government’s draft growth strategy that is expected to win Cabinet approval as early as June 14. The decision represents a marked turnaround from the previous government. There are concerns it could set off a fresh outcry from the public, which has lingering doubts about the safety of nuclear reactors following triple meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Asahi Shimbun 31st May 2013 read more »
Australia
Climate science denial meets unproven health scare meets nefarious think tankery meets policy uncertainty meets nimbyism meets scare tactics meets golf. This summarises roughly the current state of the public discourse around wind energy in Australia.
Guardian 2nd June 2013 read more »
US
A stainless steel tank the size of a basketball court lies buried in the sandy soil of southeastern Washington state, an aging remnant of U.S. efforts to win World War II. The tank holds enough radioactive waste to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. And it is leaking.
Las Vegas Review Journal 2nd June 2013 read more »
Japan Times 3rd June 2013 read more »
Iran
The eight candidates standing for president this month may differ on several issues, but when it comes to Iran’s nuclear drive they are united in pursuing what they see as its peaceful atomic ambitions. Whoever is elected president on June 14 to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic republic is unlikely to alter the course of its controversial programme of uranium enrichment.
Middle East Online 2nd June 2013 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
All five legally recognised nuclear states ‘appear determined to retain nuclear arsenals indefinitely’, says Stockholm institute.
Guardian 3rd June 2013 read more »
China, which has the world’s second-largest military budget behind the U.S., expanded its nuclear-weapons arsenal last year, with India and Pakistan also bolstering their stockpiles, a research institute said.
Bloomberg 2nd June 2013 read more »
Once every three months one of Britain’s four Trident nuclear submarines slips out of the Faslane naval base near Glasgow. No one other than its captain knows where the vessel will travel. The submarine will glide silently throughout the world’s marine depths for the next 90 days. It does not send any communications except in extremis, lest it reveal its location. This secrecy and invisibility provides the cornerstone of Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent. The message to foreign enemies is that you might obliterate the whole of the British state; you might destroy every one of Britain’s land-based military facilities; but you still won’t be safe from retaliation. From an unknown location, a Royal Navy submarine will be able to deliver a revenge nuclear attack with one thousand times the destructive power of the bomb that killed 150,000 people in Hiroshima. While the Lib Dems say that downgrading Trident could save £1 billion a year, Mr Cameron responds by saying thatthe nation’s ultimate insurance policy costs less than 2 per cent of its welfare bill. In a world where nuclear weapons may end up in the hands of people who lack sanity or do not fear retaliation, the ability to shoot incoming missiles out of the sky should be more of a priority.
Times 3rd June 2013 read more »
Renewables
On the invitation of the German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier, high-level representatives from 10 countries have gathered in Berlin to establish the Renewables Club on June 1st, 2013. Their common goal is to scale up the deployment of renewable energy worldwide. Founding members of this pro-renewable alliance are the People’s Republic of China, the Kingdom of Denmark, the French Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of India, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Republic of South Africa, the Kingdom of Tonga (as a representative of small and medium-sized island nations), the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
Clean Technica 1st June 2013 read more »
Google’s ambition to source more renewable energy to power its operations have taken another step forward after the search giant revealed it had invested in its first African solar project. Writing on the company blog late last week, Google energy and sustainability director Rick Needham said the company had invested $12m (103 million Rand) in the 96MW Jasper Power Project in the Northern Cape province of South Africa near the town of Kimberly.
Business Green 3rd June 2013 read more »
Solar will get to grid parity in the US within four years. Solar isn’t yet competitive with coal in the UK but it isn’t far off. In the US, the position is even more favourable for solar.
Carbon Commentary 2nd June 2013 read more »
Climate
Sea levels are rising as seawater warms and expands, and as the Earth’s ice melts into the sea. Research over the last few years suggests most of the rise is a result of ‘thermal expansion’ of seawater. But a new study in the journal Nature Geoscience suggests that in recent years melting ice may have been the main cause of sea level rise. Sea level rise is expected to accelerate in the future, and higher greenhouse gas emissions will speed it up further. There’s still quite a lot of uncertainty when it comes to saying exactly how fast sea levels will rise, but the upcoming report from the IPCC looks set raise estimates of how big a role ice sheets and glaciers will play.
Carbon Brief 2nd June 2013 read more »
Owen Paterson has told the Chancellor that the billions of pounds spent on preventing flooding should be effectively ring-fenced because Britain faces ever more extreme weather. Floods in England currently cause £1.1 billion worth of damage every year. But experts have warned that this could rise to £27 billion by the end of the century as weather becomes more unpredictable.
Telegraph 2nd June 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
The recent coal bed methane gas development proposals in Scotland, with possibilities of related extensive fracking looming in the Central Belt, present many challenges for Scotland and raise questions about sustainability and energy policies, economic growth and public health. Unconventional gas (UG) extraction may not appear out of place in a country where deep and open-cast coal mining is part of our industrial history but it will result in a heavily contested geographical and political terrain. Increasingly there are signs that some “economic growth” arguments could be privileged and over-ride well-documented public health and sustainability considerations. This could twist our energy policy away from safer and more sustainable energy expansion at a critical time.
Herald 3rd June 2013 read more »
