Hinkley
Details of the costs of Hinkley to consumers – an average of about £150 to £660 per customer over the 35 years of the deal – are exposed in a document quietly put before parliament last week and which has only just come to light. It also reveals that taxpayers would have to pay up to £22bn compensation to the owners, French energy giant EDF and the Chinese government, if the UK government or the European Union do something that forces the plant to close early. The opening of Hinkley Point C has been delayed twice, from 2017 to 2025, but the operators will now be penalised if it is later than that, and government can cancel the deal if it is not operating by 2033.
Guardian 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Despite the enthusiasm greeting the Hinkley Point C investment announcement, there still remains the matter of lawsuits filed by the Austrian government, Greenpeace Energy and nine German and Austrian utilities. The parties contesting the decision to facilitate the nuclear power project hold that the European Commission has breached the EU’s state aid guidelines, and if their challenge is successful it would make the project much more expensive as well as lead to potential, costly delays.Schanda had previously told PEi he felt the lawsuit had a good chance of success while Dr Dorte Fouquet, Partner, BBH Brussels who has been advising Vienna on the matter of their objection to Britain’s flagship nuclear power project on the basis of State Aid contravention, told an audience at Platts Power Summit in central London at the end of April that if Vienna presses on with its challenge it could set back construction of the Hinkley Point C project for around four years based on average case statistics.
Power Engineering International 22nd Oct 2015 read more »
Hinkley C deal welcomed by MP but questions remain over finances and the Chinese. The news was also welcomed by the area’s two local Conservative MPs. James Heappey the MP for Burnham and Highbridge said: “This is fantastic news for Somerset: Hundreds of millions of pounds in investment, tens of thousands of jobs and supply chain opportunities across Somerset and beyond. This will electrify our local economy for decades; requiring the development of new skills and positioning us as the centre of the UK’s civil nuclear industry. The impact on our county will be tremendous.” Iain Liddell Grainger for Dunball and Bridgwater said: “The Chinese President Xi Jinping and David Cameron have unveiled a deal by which China’s nuclear industry will buy out one third of the cost of building the new power stations at Hinkley Point. The agreement is worth £6billion and it now ensures that the project can be completed successfully. This is tremendous news for Somerset and for everyone in the constituency. Hinkley will bring huge rewards for the area as well as ensuring that the lights stay on.” There has been criticism in many quarters that the price is too high in the building of the station and the eventual price agreed for the energy it produces. Mick Lerry of Sedgemoor’s Labour Group said his party had referred the matter to the Public Accounts Committee to examine the deal as to whether it represented value for money for the tax payer. Roy Pumfrey of Stop Hinkley said that China should be considered the bank of last resort. He said: “Peter Hitchings in the Daily Mail wrote that some of the protestors last week in London who were campaigning for human rights in china were bullied and had their flats raided by the police. It’s not something for a country that prides itself being a democracy and freedom of speech should allow.”
This is the West Country 27th Oct 2015 read more »
Bridgwater Mercury 28th Oct 2015 read more »
EPRs
The construction of a French nuclear reactor of the same type being planned at Hinkley Point could be delayed by a further three years, the French press is reporting. Energy giant EDF has formally asked the French government for permission to delay the start of its EPR nuclear reactor in Flamanville until 2020. The French utility had been set a 2017 deadline to get the reactor up and running. The news comes as an initial agreement to build a new £24.5bn reactor of the same type at Hinkley is about to be unveiled by UK and Chinese authorities later today.
Builder & Engineer 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Bradwell
HARWICH and North Essex MP Bernard Jenkin has expressed concerns over a new power station at Bradwell, highlighting the possible impact on marine life and ecology. “My views on the possibility of a new build at Bradwell have not changed; there should be no new nuclear plant at Bradwell, unless the concerns about damage to the estuary and storage of nuclear waste on site can both be unequivocally resolved. “There seems no way that a new nuclear power station would avoid significant damage to the marine environment in the estuary. When the Magnox station was decommissioned, there was explosive recovery in the marine environment. “I have been informed that a new power station would take six times more flow of water than its predecessor.
Essex Chronicle 29th Oct 2015 read more »
A petition set up calling for the Government to think again about plans for a Chinese-built nuclear power station in Bradwell has gained more than 1,600 signatures.
Heart 27th Oct 2015 read more »
Moorside
Letter to Bill Bryson: Fantastic that you are supporting the Friends of the Lake District campaign to hide the two rows of pylons from the proposed Moorside nuclear reactors. Perhaps you would consider supporting the resistance to Moorside? The doubling of Sellafields already “grotesque” (Alfred Wainwright) nuclear sprawl will be rather more difficult to hide than the pylons. The National Grid’s Robert Powell told campaigners during a Pylon “drop in” at Beckermet, that the only guaranteed way to stop the pylons is to #StopMoorside.
Radiation Free Lakeland 29th Oct 2015 read more »
In August 2015 Nugen (Toshiba/Engie) issued a press release saying that they would apply for an EA license to pump “slightly radioactively contaminated ” water from 100 boreholes into the River Ehen. Have the Environment Agency carried out their own measurements of radioactivity/chemical composition on liquid discharge from the 100 boreholes or are they relying on NUGENs own documentation?
Radiation Free Lakeland 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Wylfa
Companies from across North Wales are being urged to prepare for Wylfa Newydd, and register their details with both Horizon and Hitachi-GE. The Wylfa Newydd project, delivered by Horizon Nuclear Power supported by Hitachi-GE, will create significant opportunities across various sectors. The recent Wylfa Newydd Supply Chain event was attended by hundreds of representatives from interested businesses, all keen to gain a better understanding of the supply chain opportunities associated with the project.
Business News Wales 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Dounreay
SEAWEED could be used to extract radioactive strontium from tonnes of sludge at the former Dounreay nuclear site in Scotland. Scientists at the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) in Thurso are also focusing their study on the potential use of crab shells, coffee grounds and spent distillery grain to remove the strontium from nuclear liquid waste. They believe the physiochemical process of biosorption could be an alternative to the established industry solutions such as ion-exchange resins and zeolite supplements. The technique has already been deployed to recover precious metals such as gold and metal and those that present environmental risks such as arsenic and mercury from liquid wastes. Preparatory work is under way on the £170 million job to extract 1500 tonnes of noxious chemical and radioactive sludge from the 65-metre deep makeshift dump which was use d between 1958 and 1977.
Scotsman 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Grain after it has been used for making whisky could be put to a new purpose in the clean up of radioactivity at the Dounreay nuclear site near Thurso. Scientists have begun tests on the use of spent grain from distilleries and also seaweed, crab shells and coffee grounds in absorbing Strontium-90. The radioactive isotope is present in liquid waste inside Dounreay’s Shaft. Sunk in the 1950s close to the shores of the Pentland Firth, The Shaft plunges 65.4m (214.5ft) below ground. Radioactive waste was disposed there from 1959 to 1977, when an explosion ended the practice.
BBC 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Hunterston
Police Scotland are investigating a 22-year-old Muslim man who was reading bomb-making websites while at work at Hunterston B nuclear power plant.
HNGN 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Radhealth
RIFE 20 published – Assessment of radioactivity in food and the environment and the public’s exposure to radiation during 2014.
Environment Agency & Food Standards Agency 28th Oct 2015 read more »
ONR
Adriènne Kelbie has been appointed Chief Executive of the UK’s nuclear regulator. Adriènne will take up the appointment on 18 January 2016. Commenting on the appointment, Nick Baldwin, ONR Chair, said: “I am delighted to welcome Adriènne as our new Chief Executive and look forward to working with her. Her valuable skills and leadership experience will enable us to continue our work in taking forward our published strategy and building ONR as an enabling and responsive regulator” Adriènne said: “There has never been a greater need for effective regulation, given the growing part that nuclear energy plays in the UK. This is a matter of legitimate public concern, and national security. I’m looking forward to working with the Board and staff to help ONR achieve its vision as an enabling and responsive regulator that ensures industry maintains high standards, controls its hazards effectively and has a culture of continuous improvement.” Adriènne is currently the Chief Executive of the Disclosure and Barring Service. Prior to this, Adriènne had a varied career including periods as Deputy Chief Executive in a local authority and as Director of Operations responsible for national and international funding at the Big Lottery Fund.
ONR 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Politics
MPs on the Energy Committee at the Westminster parliament – which is chaired SNP MP Angus MacNeil – will take evidence on energy-efficiency and fuel-poverty next week. In addition, the committee will examine a range of issues – including the overall performance of energy efficiency policies in the UK and lessons learnt from Green Deal and ECO.
Scottish Energy News 30th Oct 2015 read more »
The final Labour party vacancy on the Energy and Climate Change (ECC) select committee is to be filled by anti-Corbyn MP Jamie Reed. The Cumbrian MP’s constituency is home to the UK’s largest nuclear decommissioning plant at Sellafield which employs thousands of voters. And Reed was quick to hit out at Corbyn for his “poorly informed and fundamentally wrong” opinions on nuclear power in a letter resigning from his post as shadow health minister. Reed currently serves as vice chair on the all-party parliamentary group on nuclear energy. But he also supports Britain’s Energy Coast which aims to broaden Cumbria’s energy potential beyond nuclear innovation, to renewable-based technologies including district heating systems and infrastructure for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.
Utility Week 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Emergency Planning
Nuclear emergency planning guidance to help local planners, Whitehall departments, devolved administrations and agencies write effective plans.
DECC 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Companies
Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday its subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co. will acquire a U.S. nuclear plant builder, CB&I Stone & Webster Inc., to strengthen its presence in the U.S. energy sector. Westinghouse will make the construction firm a wholly owned unit, buying its shares from a U.S. engineering company CB&I for an undisclosed amount by the end of this year, Toshiba said.
Mainichi 30th Oct 2015 read more »
Energy Supplies – Scotland
SCOTLAND will become dependent on energy imported from England unless it can move away from “emotional and politically motivated” rows over wind farms, nuclear power and fracking, one of the country’s leading engineers has warned. Professor Gary Pender, head of the Institute of Civil Engineers in Scotland, called for a national debate on the country’s long-term energy supply. In one of the starkest warnings yet about future energy security, he said Scotland’s historic position as a net exporter of electricity would be reversed without major new developments. He conceded that wind, nuclear and the potential new power source of unconventionally extracted gas were controversial but added: “We need to move beyond this at times irrational and ill-informed discourse about all these forms of energy generation, and conduct a thorough, expert-informed assessment of the right approach for Scotland.” Mr Pender was speaking ahead of a report by ICE Scotland, to be published next month, which highlights the country’s energy “quadrilemma” – the need to cut carbon emissions, minimise consumer costs and ensure secure supplies while satisfying public opinion. Of five infrastructure areas examined by the report, Scotland’s energy policy caused the greatest concern. Wind power has produced an increasing share of Scotland’s energy needs in recent years but a number of major nuclear and fossil fuel generators, which produce “baseload” power are about to close. Longannet, in Fife, one Europe’s biggest coal fired power stations, will close next March. Scotland’s two nuclear plants, Torness, in East Lothian, and Hunterston B, in Ayrshire, will only remain operational until 2023. Between them, the three facilities account for half Scotland’s generating capacity.
Herald 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Scotsman 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Telegraph 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Iran
Former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani admitted that the Islamic Republic had initially launched its nuclear program in order to have the option of developing nuclear weapons, according to a translation of an interview published Wednesday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
The Tower 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Bolivia
Bolivia has announced plans to build a $300m nuclear complex, including a research reactor, with Russian technology and help from Argentina. President Evo Morales told reporters the center will include a cyclotron for radiopharmaeuticals, a multi-purpose gamma irradiation plant and a research reactor. The project has drawn criticism from opposition politicians and raised public fears over the environmental impacts of the project.
Guardian 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Tanzania
In a country where only 40% of people have access to grid electricity, the government is looking to sunshine to power health centres and homes.
Guardian 29th Oct 2015 read more »
US
US nuclear plant operators are likely to announce the permanent closure of additional reactors in the coming months for economic reasons, Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Marvin Fertel said Monday.
Platts 26th Oct 2015 read more »
Renewable Subsidies
Letter: It’s becoming tiresome hearing government ministers justify their cuts to renewable energy subsidies on the basis that industries must “stand on their own two feet”. Energy minister Andrea Leadsom’s assertion that “I don’t think anyone here would advocate an industry that only survives because of a subsidy paid by the billpayer” may sound vaguely reasonable if a) we didn’t have the tricky little problem of climate change to contend with, and b) other energy industries weren’t also subsidised. Your article rightly highlights the enormous subsidies for nuclear, but doesn’t mention those also being given to the fossil fuel industry. According to the IMF, the UK will spend approximately £26bn on fossil fuel subsidies this year, factoring in new World Health Organisation estimates on harm to health from pollution exposure. By comparison, Department of Energy and Climate Change figures show the cost of supporting renewables in 2014-15 was £3.5bn, expected to rise to £4.3bn in 2015-16. Put another way, every UK citizen pays £412 in fossil fuel subsidies, and just £55 for renewables. How are we ever to wean ourselves off fossil fuels when government policy is so skewed in their favour?
Guardian 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Letter: There are two myths in your editorial First, you state that “subsidies for solar favour wealthier homes”. A quick tour around Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside would show you that there are significant council and housing association programmes to alleviate fuel poverty in poor areas, with insulation improvements and solar panels on swaths of houses. There are also many community centres and schools that benefit from solar panels across the country. Second, you quote the “cheaper but unloved onshore wind”. Your own survey in May 2014 showed 48% in favour of onshore wind and only 19% in favour of fracking. Some surveys have showed 80% backing wind power. The Tory government is using divisive tactics to make people see renewables as a lifestyle choice rather than a vital programme of development for our future. They have stuffed Decc with climate-change deniers focused on supporting the big six energy companies and their relentless burning of fossil fuels. Please be careful not to repeat the myths they generate to obscure the destruction they are perpetrating on us all.
Guardian 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Renewables – offshore wind
Permission has been granted today (29 October) to put steel in water for what will be the world’s biggest offshore wind farm off the coast of Cumbria. Danish utilities DONG Energy has received the final investment decision from authorities to construct the 660MW Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm in the Irish Sea, which will deliver electricity to more than 460,000 UK homes. DONG Energy’s executive vice president Samuel Leupold said: “Walney Extension will deliver clean electricity to more than 460,000 UK homes and I’m very glad that we can now start construction of what will be the world’s biggest offshore wind farm when completed.
Edie 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Renew Economy 30th Oct 2015 read more »
Business Green 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Construction of a £1.5bn windfarm off the Suffolk coast is to go ahead in November with the creation of nearly 800 jobs, after three new partners were found to back the project. The future of the Galloper windfarm was left in doubt last year when energy company SSE pulled out of the project, blaming the cost and the subsidy regime. The remaining partner, RWE Innogy, halted work. But RWE Innogy announced on Friday that Siemens Financial Services and the investment and financial services group Macquarie Capital, along with the UK government’s Green Investment Bank, had become joint 25% equity partners.
Guardian 30th Oct 2015 read more »
Renewables – AD
Scotland’s anaerobic digestion industry – which turns rotting food and farm waste into electricity – has mushroomed by more than two thirds in a year. Twenty seven AD projects are up and running in Scotland, up 69% (from 16) in 12 months ago, while a further 43 have planning approval.
Scottish Energy News 30th Oct 2015 read more »
Renewables – solar
Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles, Rolo, Toffee Crisp and Caramac’s are to see their green credentials burnished, after food giant Nestle officially opened a rooftop solar array at the Northumberland factory that produces the popular confectionary. The company yesterday cut the ribbon on the 1,970 solar panels that have been installed at its Fawdon factory, inviting children from the local Malvin’s Close Primary Academy to tour the site and see how renewable energy is now helping to manufacture Nestle products.
Business Green 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Renewables – wave
The Edinburgh-based company blamed the current economic climate for the decision. The move comes only weeks after the firm announced it had been awarded a £580,000 grant from the European Union to help it accelerate the development of commercial wave energy technology. Aquamarine said its 14 employees would be retained as attempts were made to sell it as a going concern. The company has already built and run two full-scale wave energy converters, called Oysters, at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.
BBC 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Aquamarine Power today called in administrators to manage the business and to seek a sale or investment via the administration process. BDO LLP business restructuring partners James Stephen and Graham Newton have been appointed Joint Administrators and will now take over the running of the Edinburgh firm. This follows a decision by the Aquamarine Power board yesterday (Tuesday). The Joint Administrators will continue to trade the company with a view to effecting a sale as a going concern. All 14 employees are being retained. The pioneering wave energy developers have been testing their full-scale Oyster wave energy machines at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.
Aquamarine 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Aquamarine Power has become the latest wave energy firm to enter administration, blaming a lack of interest from private investors in the emerging technology. The Edinburgh-based company, which is currently testing its Oyster wave energy converter off the coast of Orkney, has called in administrators BDO while it seeks a sale or fresh round of investment.
Business Green 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Community Energy
The government plans to cut tax reliefs for community energy schemes to build new renewable power capacity such as solar and wind in a move that will deal a further blow to the UK’s embattled renewables sector, green campaigners have warned. The Treasury is to remove tax reliefs of 30% or more for community energy schemes that reduced the risk for investors and encouraged private capital to help build new energy capacity. The move, which emerged this week during the finance bill’s third reading, had not been expected. It means that investors in community energy projects will not be able to benefit from the so-called Enterprise Investment Schemes, the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme or the Social Investment Tax Relief, making such investments much less attractive. It comes on top of previous subsidy cuts and proposals by the government to cut subsidies for domestic solar installations – so called feed-in tariffs – by 87%.
Edie 29th Oct 2015 read more »
ReNews 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Guardian 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Business Green 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Towns and communities will miss out on the benefits of green energy projects after a change in UK government rules, it has been warned. Energy campaigners have been left shocked after UK ministers decided to remove the tax relief they could offer investors. It means that those trying to build schemes such as small-scale hydros or small wind turbines, only have a few weeks to attract investors before they lose out on the promise of 50 per cent or 30 per cent tax relief on their stake. It could mean the difference between a return of up to 11.7 per cent on their investment, compared to about 4.4 per cent. Share offers will now need to be closed and all finance in place by Monday November 30, so the associated administration effectively will have to be completed by the Friday before. It could mean an end to plans to build two turbines on the Shetland island of Fetlar. Robert Thomson, project manager, said: “We are shell-shocked. We only got the news last night. It really is touch and go now. We thought we would have till March to raise £223,000. “We launched the share offer last Friday and have got £10,000 in already. But now we only have until the end of November to get the rest. We are having an emergency meeting tonight, but it really is on a knife edge.” Meanwhile the Edinburgh Community Solar Co-operative is also encouraging investors to move quickly. The innovative co-operative was launched last month and has already raised more than £100,000. The scheme aims to raise £1.4 million to install solar panels on 25 public buildings across the capital.
Herald 30th Oct 2015 read more »
Energy Efficiency
New briefing compares the state of the UK housing stock and fuel poverty levels with 15 other European countries. It concludes that no other country of the 16 assessed performed as poorly overall as the UK across the range of indicators. The UK has among the highest rates of fuel poverty and one of the most energy inefficient housing stocks in Europe.
ACE 28th Oct 2015 read more »
B&Q and other Kingfisher stores are to offer discounts on energy saving products over the coming weeks, to help raise awareness of the upcoming United Nations climate change talks in Paris that start next month. In an interview with BusinessGreen, Richard Gillies, sustainability director for Kingfisher, the European group which owns B&Q, said he wanted to make climate change a tangible reality for customers.
Business Green 29th Oct 2015 read more »
National Records of Scotland figures show winter deaths in 2014/15 were at their highest level since 1999/2000. Campaigners have urged the Government to act on energy efficiency in housing, following figures showing that winter deaths in 2014/15 were at their highest level since 1999/2000. The figures, released by the National Records of Scotland, show increased winter mortality was more than twice what it was the year before. More than 4,000 more people died last winter, compared to the average for the year.
Holyrood 29th Oct 2015 read more »
The UK’s housing stock is amongst the worst in Europe leading to some of the highest levels of fuel poverty on the continent, according to a major new study to be released today that attempts to compare levels of domestic energy efficiency across 16 European nations. The report from the Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE) and the Energy Bill Revolution group, which campaigns for domestic energy efficiency to be made an official infrastructure priority, analyses the results of a major EU survey that reveals households’ experience of fuel poverty.”By far the greatest opportunity to cut energy bills is to invest in energy efficiency infrastructure programme for our nation’s leaky homes,” said Director of the Energy Bill Revolution, Ed Matthew. “Recent research from Frontier Economics shows this would bring an £8.7bn net economic benefit to the country, comparable to HS2 Phase 1 and Crossrail. This would boost GDP growth, reduce UK reliance on gas imports and help deliver a net increase in employment across the country. It would also help keep energy bills down, reduce health costs and warm up the homes of the fuel poor.”
Business Green 28th Oct 2015 read more »
Energy Storage
A breakthrough in electrochemistry at Cambridge university could lead the way to rechargeable super-batteries that pack five times more energy into a given space than today’s best batteries, greatly extending the range of electric vehicles and potentially transforming the economics of electricity storage. Chemistry professor Clare Grey and her team have overcome technical challenges in the development of lithium-air batteries – the only cells theoretically capable of giving electric cars the range of petrol and diesel vehicles without having to carry excessively bulky and heavy battery packs. If the technology can be turned from a laboratory demonstrator into a commercial product, it will enable a car to drive from London to Edinburgh on a single charge, with batteries that cost and weigh one-fifth of the lithium-ion cells that power today’s electric cars.
FT 29th Oct 2015 read more »
Grid Connections
ICELANDIC volcanoes could be piping power to homes across the UK through a Scottish subsea cable, under plans to be announced by the Prime Minister. David Cameron is expected to announce the move to provide a “green battery” through an electricity link between Britain and Iceland at the Northern Future Forum in Reykjavik. The multi-billion pound interconnector – involving 750 miles of undersea cabling – would enable the direct export of hydro and geothermal-generated electricity to be exported directly to Britain. Previous plans have earmarked the north of Scotland as first point of contact with the UK which would create jobs in construction and maintenance at the place where the cable would come ashore. A new UK-Iceland Energy Task Force set up to examine the feasibility of the scheme will report back within six months.
Herald 30th Oct 2015 read more »
