Magnox Decommissioning
Consortia vying for the contract to decommission £7bn of nuclear waste are spending as much as £1m a month on bidding. In a sign that government procurement costs remain eye-wateringly high, sources said the four bidders had spent “well into the teens of millions” on working up their proposals in a process that began 18 months ago. The contract, formally launched last summer, will see the clean-up of 12 nuclear sites including obsolete magnox stations in Gloucestershire and Essex. “There are so many different workforces, cultures and projects on these sites that you have to come up with different plans for each of them,” added one of the sources. The sites are also at different stages of decommissioning, with one, in Anglesey, still producing electricity. The bidders include a pairing of listed British engineers Amec and Atkins, while the remaining three teams are led by US giants Bechtel, CH2M Hill and Fluor. A fifth team, led by another US group in URS, recently withdrew from the auction. The contract will run for 14 years.
Independent 3rd March 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
HALF of Britain’s “big six” energy suppliers say they make virtually no profit – or lose money – providing gas and electricity to Britain’s 25m homes. The claims, made by the industry in an independent assessment of the supply business by the regulator Ofgem, will fuel the debate over soaring household bills. The average annual dual-fuel bill has doubled over the past five years to £1,340. Power companies claim the rises are due to the rising cost of gas and a huge increase in green taxes levied by the government. Ministers and fuel-poverty campaigners dismiss the claims, regularly lambasting executives for ripping off households. They accuse the companies, which are often part of multinationals, of simply moving profits to other parts of their global operations.
Sunday Times 3rd March 2013 read more »
Energy giant RWE npower is this week expected to report double-digit profit growth for 2012, as customers turned up their heating in the colder weather and its power plants generated more electricity.
Telegraph 3rd March 2013 read more »
Energy Supplies
The owner of British Gas should be leading the debate on domestic energy security, not just relentlessly focusing on corporate enrichment. Centrica should have an important role to play in the debate over Britain’s future energy security but has disenfranchised itself in the eyes of the public by concentrating on short-term financial gain. Its chief executive, Sam Laidlaw, says it is important that the group, which owns British Gas, makes a “fair and reasonable return” so that it can continue to make its contribution to society and to invest. Quite so: but the balance is wrong, even accepting it is not always easy to marry up providing a public service – affordable energy – with need to retain standing with a City of London that measures everything in short-term financial gain.
Observer 3rd March 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
SCOTTISH ministers have been ranked near the bottom of a league table of energy efficiency for UK government departments after cutting their carbon emissions by just 0.5% in the past year. Despite achieving a slight overall reduction in carbon output, Scottish government departments and agencies saw a rise in their emissions relative to their budget. In contrast, the UK Department for Communities and Local Government topped the list after cutting its carbon emissions by 70.9%, while the Department for International Development achieved a 32.7% drop, and the Welsh government recorded a fall of 17.8%. The performance of Scottish ministers leaves them ranked 45 out of 51 government departments and agencies, and 1,449 out of 2,097 UK organisations listed in the Environment Agency’s carbon reduction commitment performance league table 2011-2, which compared the country’s highest energy users. The Scottish government has set some of the world’s toughest emissions reductions targets, committing Scotland to reduce CO2 emissions by 42% by 2020, compared with 34% in the rest of the UK.
Sunday Times 3rd March 2013 read more »
Germany
American views on Germany’s commitment to renewable energy sources tend to misunderstand the transition’s political, economic, and historical underpinnings. Where does this misunderstanding come from? The American journalist, Paul Hockenos, takes a look.
Energy Transition 2nd March 2013 read more »
US
Amorry Lovins: In the United States, which trades three-fifths of its electricity in competitive markets, the prohibitive capital cost of new nuclear power plants ensures that only a handful will be built. Nonetheless, with 40-year licenses being extended to 60 years, the 104 existing reactors’ relatively low generating costs are widely expected to justify decades of continued operation. But the generating costs of aging reactors have been rising, while competitors, including modern renewables, show rapidly falling total costs—and those opposed cost curves have begun to intersect.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists March/April 2013 read more »
US Nuclear Phase Out issue.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists March/April 2013 read more »
Renewables
Wave power developer Pelamis expects to seal a funding deal before the end of the year to commercialise its “sea snake” technology. Per Hornung Pedersen, chief executive of the Edinburgh-based firm, originally believed an investment in the firm would have been made last summer. Pelamis launched the search for a strategic partner in 2011 but Pedersen said the “process has been dragged out” by “challenging” conditions in the industrial sector.Instead of an outright sale at this point, Pedersen said he would consider bringing in a combination of investors and industrial partners.
Scotland on Sunday 3rd March 2013 read more »
Shale Gas
DEVELOPING shale gas will not kill off Scotland’s burgeoning renewable energy industry, a Citigroup analyst will tell a major conference in Edinburgh this week. Recent research has suggested that the country may be sitting on up to £5 billion of gas reserves, which could be extracted using the controversial technique known as “fracking”. While the shale gas boom in the United States has unlocked huge deposits of cheap hydrocarbons and led to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs, Scotland has chosen the renewables path. But in key research to be presented at Scottish Renewables’ annual conference, Jason Channell, director of alternative energy at Citi Research, will argue that shale gas and renewables can form a “symbiotic relationship”. He is set to be joined by a number of other speakers who will debate the costs and benefits of renewables and examine the alternatives.
Scotland on Sunday 3rd March 2013 read more »
