Energy Investment
George Osborne has suffered a further blow to his credibility after global financial institutions such as Bank of America and the insurance giant Aviva accused him of driving away crucial investment in the energy sector. On the day of the Chancellor’s Conservative Party Conference speech, investors controlling more than £1trn of assets have strongly criticised him after he removed from the Energy Bill a clause that would have made Britain’s electricity supply almost entirely green by 2030. The attack comes as the Coalition government is said to be in talks to delay the implementation of a multi-billion-pound green scheme to help take the pressure off the fuel bills. It is reported to be considering agreeing to the demands to reform the home insulation scheme, the Energy Companies Obligation. But other investors have warned the Government must step up its commitment to the green agenda. The financial consortium is concerned that the Government has failed to signal a clear commitment to low-carbon energy, making it very difficult for potential investors to determine the risk associated with backing wind, solar and other energy projects. As a result, many are shying away from making important investments, they argue.
Independent 30th Sept 2013 read more »
A group of powerful investors has written to George Osborne warning that a lack of clarity on green energy policy is stalling investment in UK companies. The investors, which include Hermes, Aviva Investors, Threadneedle, Schroders and the Methodist Church, have demanded a set decarbonisation target to be inserted into the Energy Bill to give investment certainty to power and manufacturing companies. In June an amendment to aim to decarbonise the power sector by 2030 was narrowly defeated in the Commons. But in their letter to the Chancellor, who will today deliver his speech at the Tory Conference in Manchester, the investors warned that its omission in the Energy Bill is leading to a paralysis of investment.
Telegraph 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Chris Huhne: Heaven help the planet, because dealing with climate change is going to cost something (although a lot less than not dealing with it). The politics is getting more difficult, judging by the promises of Ed Miliband and David Cameron. They evidently think that voters are in no mood to pay even a modest insurance premium to stop what the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report says is a 95% certainty that human activity is destroying our habitat. The key to lower British energy bills is not our own production, but more US export terminals. So far, just four terminals have been given permission, and more than 10 export terminals are still awaiting approval, even though the US has a legal obligation under the World Trade Organisation rules not to restrict exports. The other way to cut energy prices is to curb demand: the lower the demand for electricity and gas, the lower prices will be. The government legislated for a revolutionary way of increasing household energy saving – the green deal – which had three-party support at the last election. But Osborne and the Treasury have blocked any serious incentives despite private financing, savings in household bills and job creation. So much for Osborne’s pre-election promise to turn the Treasury into a “green ally”.
Guardian 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Oh to be a fly on the wall at the next board meetings of the UK’s “Big Six” energy suppliers. Whatever you think of the merits or otherwise of Labour leader Ed Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy bills for two years if elected, the truth is that the energy companies and their practices are going to be under scrutiny as never before.
Independent 28th Sept 2013 read more »
Energy companies have invited Labour leader Ed Miliband to urgent talks over his proposal to freeze energy prices. Angela Knight, chief executive of Energy UK, which represents all of Britain’s leading energy suppliers, has asked Miliband to discuss the implications of his proposal to freeze energy prices for 20 months should he become Prime Minister in 2015. The energy industry has warned that the move could destroy hopes for future investment and could even lead to power blackouts.
Daily Mail 29th Sept 2013 read more »
BRITAIN faces energy rationing and blackouts by 2015 as Labour’s price freeze vow will prevent investment in new power stations to keep our lights on, experts warned last night. Professor Ian Fells, a leading expert on energy supply in the UK, warned four years ago that Britain was heading for shortages of electricity resulting in rationing and blackouts if old fossil fuel plants being taken out of service by 2020 were not replaced by wind farms, or nuclear and gas-fired stations. The Emeritus Professor of Energy Conversion at Newcastle University last night said Miliband’s pledge to force the six biggest power suppliers to freeze their prices from May 2015 to January 2017 has greatly increased the likelihood of a crisis within 18 months.
Express 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Craig Bennett: Ed Miliband’s pledge to freeze fuel bills has certainly grabbed the headlines. But the Labour leader’s promise to decarbonise the UK power sector by 2030 is equally significant, because this would end the nation’s addiction to fossil fuels – which have rocketed in price in recent years and are the main reason for soaring fuel bills. If we want to fix our broken energy system we must embark on a major energy-efficiency programme to really stamp out waste. For too long our homes and offices have been heating the atmosphere – while the people inside frequently shiver in the cold. The UK is also blessed with huge renewable energy resources, with the potential to create thousands of new jobs. Unfortunately, the coalition has completely undermined confidence in clean power and driven investors away.
Guardian 29th Sept 2013 read more »
EDF Energy
Negotiators at EDF Energy have averted strikes at its lucrative British nuclear business, agreeing to hand about 3,000 workers a 2.5 per cent pay rise and lump sum bonus. Union leaders had privately warned that engineers, safety experts and radiation monitors could strike over a 2 per cent offer earlier this year. The French energy giant has bumped up the salary and overtime increases and backdated payments to the start of July, while workers can expect a £450 lump sum in their October pay packets.
Independent 30th Sept 2013 read more »
Sellafield
The fate of the private sector consortium that has overseen delays and spiralling costs to clean up Cumbria’s Sellafield is expected to be decided at the end of this week. It is believed that Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) – a consortium made up of URS of California, France’s Areva and FTSE 100 group Amec – will be handed a short new contract to replace its existing five-year deal. However, it is thought this will contain a clause that would see the contract immediately stripped from the group if there are any more major failures.
Independent 30th Sept 2013 read more »
South Africa
The Government is forging ahead with its nuclear build programme to boost the electricity supply although details of its costings are scant, but Eskom’s own figures indicate it will be the most expensive option. In the wake of an announcement on Thursday by Energy Minister Ben Martins that a detailed costing and the extent of the nuclear programme would be made known before the end of the financial year, a range of organisations have come out against the government’s stance in favour of extending South Africa’s nuclear power footprint beyond Koeberg.
Independent Online 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Japan
The decommissioning of Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, which is near the wrecked Daiichi plant, cannot be dealt with in the same manner as the decommissioning of other nuclear plants, Japanese trade and industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Monday.”The decommissioning of nuclear plants is something the utilities should decide, but we cannot treat the Daini plant in the same manner as other plants when considering the sentiment of Fukushima residents,” Motegi said at a parliamentary hearing.
Reuters 30th Sept 2013 read more »
Iran
Iran is prepared to negotiate over aspects of its nuclear enrichment programme and to talk about the introduction of surprise inspections of its nuclear facilities, the country’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has said. “Negotiations are on the table to discuss various aspects of our enrichment programme,” Zarif said on Sunday, though he added pointedly: “Our right to enrich is not negotiable.”
Guardian 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Germany
Most politicians outside the Green Party were eager to pin blame on the Energiewende for the high electricity prices paid by German consumers. (Industry pays much lower prices and thus has nothing to complain about — although it does so anyway.) The brunt of their claims about cost, however, are misleading. Germans do indeed pay more than their neighbors for power out of the socket, but only a small portion of this is the clean-energy surcharge tacked onto their utility bill. There are also excise taxes, the highest sales taxes in Europe, transmission grid charges, and other costs. Both the Greens and the Social Democrats have reasonable policy proposals to rein in the costs for consumers without jeopardizing the energy transition. Perhaps one of the parties — they’re the only choices Merkel has for coalition partners in the next government — will manage to bring their recommendation on board in the new government.
Foreign Affairs 26th Sept 2013 read more »
Renewables
Two of Britain’s leading scientists have urged the setting up of a world Sunpower Programme to deliver solar electricity that is cheaper than fossil fuel power by 2025. All countries should be invited to participate, say Sir David King, a former government chief scientific adviser, and the economist Lord Richard Layard in an article in the Observer.
Observer 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Last Friday’s report from the United Nations confirms the huge danger from our continued dependence on fossil fuel. But one simple thing can break this dependence. It needs to be cheaper to produce non-carbon energy than it is by digging up coal, gas or oil. Once this happens, most of the coal, gas and oil will automatically be left undisturbed in the ground. To make non-carbon energy become competitive is a major scientific challenge, not unlike the challenge of developing the atom bomb or sending a man to the moon. Science rose to those challenges because a clear goal and timetable were set and enough public money was provided for the research. These programmes had high political profile and public visibility. They attracted many of the best minds of the age. The issue of climate change and energy is even more important and it needs the same treatment. In most countries, there is at present too little public spending on non-carbon energy research. Instead, we need a major international research effort, with a clear goal and a clear timetable.
Observer 29th Sept 2013 read more »
Climate
Talks must start urgently on the world’s “carbon budget” – the amount of greenhouse gas that can be poured into the atmosphere without triggering dangerous climate change – as without radical policies to cut emissions humanity will exceed the limit within 15 to 25 years, the world’s leading climate economist has warned. Lord Stern, the former World Bank chief economist and author of the landmark study of the economics of global warming, said the world faced a stark choice. On Friday, after days of deliberations, the world’s leading climate scientists put a figure for the first time on how much carbon dioxide humanity can continue to pour into the air before overheating the planet. The stark conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was that half to two-thirds of the “budget” have already used up. The IPCC report points out that to have at least a 50% chance of keeping to less than 2C of warming, regarded by scientists as the threshold of safety, we must emit no more than 820-1445 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases during the rest of this century, said Stern.
Guardian 29th Sept 2013 read more »
The cabinet minister responsible for fighting the effects of climate change claimed there would be advantages to an increase in temperature predicted by the United Nations including fewer people dying of cold in winter and the growth of certain crops further north. Owen Paterson told a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference on Sunday night that predictions by scientists – that there could be major increases in temperature resulting in melting ice caps and worldwide flooding – should not be seen as entirely negative. His comments came after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found last week that within two or three decades the world will face nearly inevitable warming of more than 2 degrees, resulting in rising sea levels, heatwaves, droughts and extreme weather. Asked at a fringe meeting organised by the RSPB if the report proved that the climate is “broken”, Paterson said: “People get very emotional about this subject and I think we should just accept that the climate has been changing for centuries. “I think the relief of this latest report is that it shows a really quite modest increase, half of which has already happened. They are talking one to two and a half degrees.
Guardian 30th Sept 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
A Conservative cabinet minister has claimed drilling for shale gas could make the “single biggest difference to the cost of living” for people in Britain. Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, said he believes the controversial process known as fracking is the “solution” to the problem of high energy bills. He spoke out on the first day of the Conservative conference as the party comes under pressure to respond to Labour leader Ed Miliband’s promise to freeze energy bills.
Guardian 30th Sept 2013 read more »
