Hinkley
The British government and EDF, the French energy company, signed the main contract for the new £18 billion Hinkley Point C nuclear power station yesterday. Jean-Bernard Levy, EDF chief executive, joined officials from the UK, France and China at a private ceremony in London. The signing was also attended by Greg Clark, the business secretary, Jean-Marc Ayrault, France’s foreign minister, Nur Bekri, China’s National Energy Administration director, and He Yu, chairman of CGN, the Chinese group that will have a 66 per cent stake in the joint venture. The government gave the green light for the power station in Somerset this month. It will provide electricity for nearly six million homes when it is completed in early 2020 and is the UK’s first new nuclear plant in a generation. Yesterday’s signing was the second attempt at closing the deal after Theresa May unexpectedly announced in July that she wanted to study the contracts more closely. Mr Clark said it was a “crucial moment” adding that Hinkley played “an important part in ensuring our future low-carbon energy security”. CGN said it was delighted to sign all final agreements for the Hinkley Point C project and a number of other agreements relating to Sizewell C in Suffolk and Bradwell B in Essex with EDF and the UK government.
Times 30th Sept 2016 read more »
The Hinkley Point C nuclear plant will saddle UK consumers with higher energy bills than building gas power stations, the Government has admitted, as it signed a legally-binding contract to subsidise the £18bn project. An official assessment claimed the Franco-Chinese project to build Britain’s first nuclear plant in a generation represented “value for money”, despite being more expensive than gas, because it would help meet climate change targets. A series of deals signed between the Government, France’s EDF and China’s state nuclear firm CGN at a ceremony in London marked the final go-ahead for the Somerset power plant and also fired the formal starting gun on Chinese efforts to build their own reactor in Essex. Writing in the Telegraph, He Yu, chairman of CGN, said the companies were “cementing the golden era between China and the UK” and attacked the “baseless and inaccurate” criticism of Chinese involvement in UK nuclear power. He said he hoped the UK could “learn from” CGN as it imported its own nuclear technology and know-how. The company plans to begin the safety approval process for its reactor “immediately” and aims to complete it within five years. Among hundreds of pages of documents issued on Thursday afternoon – some heavily redacted – ministers faced a series of questions over a cursory three-page assessment concluding that the deal would add £12 to energy bills in 2030 but was “value for money”. The assessment said Hinkley was “cost-competitive to other options for delivering power” despite its own assessment that the “comparable cost” of new gas in the 2020s could be as low as £45/MWh, solar as low as £65/MWh and onshore wind as low as £49/MWh. If Hinkley was delayed by three years and gas plants built instead then by 2030 the UK would be £3.2bn better off and energy bills would be “£6 cheaper per year”, it concluded.
Telegraph 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Guardian 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Redactions aside, there were a few eye-catching statements in the document dump. Most startling perhaps was the UK government admitting that the renewable energy alternatives to Hinkley could, in fact, be cheaper.
Energydesk 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Following the news that the UK Government will today sign contracts with EDF Energy for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, the Stop Hinkley Campaign have responded branding the deal “an enormous error of judgement” on the part of both EDF Energy and the UK Government. “We will be paying the bill for this folly for decades to come. It’s a bad deal for consumers; it’s a bad deal for Somerset; it’s a bad deal for the country and it’s a bad deal for the planet,” said Stop Hinkley spokesperson Roy Pumfrey. “Hinkley Point C will be out-of date long before it generates a single kilowatt, and yet after today we will still have to pay for it.” “Most of the Hinkley jobs will be abroad, and meanwhile Somerset will fall behind other parts of the country which have a more forward thinking attitude to renewable energy and the transition to a sustainable energy future.” “While other parts of the world are making fuel poverty a thing of the past and generating jobs from cheap solar and wind energy, Somerset will be left with a legacy of nuclear waste which we will be expected to look after on the Hinkley site for the next 160 years.”
Blue & Green Tomorrow 28th Sept 2016 read more »
New fears over Hinkley as scientists warn risks of nuclear power plants are seriously underestimated. Scientists warn true cost of Hinkley Point could be much higher than £18bn. Blamed underestimated costs on conflict of interest from industry bodies. Fukushima-scale nuclear disaster ‘more probably than not,’ analysis warns. University of Sussex report calls for greater transparency from watchdog
Daily Mail 19th Sept 2016 read more »
Sizewell
A new report finds that 28 nuclear reactors, 18 of them EDF plants in France and one at Sizewell in the UK, are at risk of failure ‘including core meltdown’ due to flaws in safety-critical components in reactor vessels and steam generators, writes Oliver Tickell. The news comes as EDF credit is downgraded due to a growing cash flow crisis and its decision to press on with Hinkley C.
Ecologist 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Flamanville
The giant nuclear project under construction at Flamanville in France is facing yet another major challenge, with a new report claiming it has failed to obtain the requisite safety certification. EDF – the energy company building the power plant – is awaiting a verdict from the French nuclear regulator ASN over allegedly faulty parts produced by its forging facility, including the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) at the heart of its flagship Flamanville project. According to a report by engineers Large & Associates commissioned by Greenpeace France, that very RPV was not issued a ‘certificate of conformity’ by the ASN — which means it would fail to meet both EU and national safety standards. It also suggests that EDF could be forced to remove and replace it, further delaying the already-years-late project. The Flamanville reactor is a model for the project planned by EDF for Hinkley Point in the UK, and reports claim if it isn’t up-and-running by 2020 then the British government can minimise its financial support.
Energydesk 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Renewables – solar
SCOTTISH Water has unveiled its single biggest ever investment in solar energy projects as it seeks to drive down carbon emissions and costs a sites across Scotland. The utility has pledged to spend £9 million in solar projects at assets around the country over the next three years through its Scottish Water Horizons subsidiary, having appointed four contractors to develop, design and install solar panels at the sites. The work will be carried out by Absolute Solar & Wind, FES, Saliis and Styles & Wood, which emerged after Scottish Water Horizons received 17 bids and 45 expressions of interest during the tender process. The utility produces electricity through 26 hydro turbine sites, 18 wind-powered sites and two biomass plants. It also generates sufficient bio-gas to power 2,000 homes through a Scottish Water Horizons-owned food waste recycling plant near Cumbernauld.
Herald 30th Sept 2016 http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/company_news/14767888.Scottish_Water_sanctions_biggest_ever_solar_project_investment/
Energy Storage
A new energy storage technology currently under development by Siemens is set to see excess wind energy converted to heat rocks, allowing the energy to be stored using an insulated cover. The system consists of a fan that uses an electrically-heated air flow to heat the stones to high temperatures, with the thermal energy then converted back to electricity when needed using a steam turbine.
Business Green 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Scotland may have to rely on shale gas fracked in England to keep homes heated, Ruth Davidson claimed yesterday, as she increased the pressure on the SNP over its energy policy. The Nationalist government has had a moratorium on fracking for 18 months and, this week, Ineos, the petrochemical giant, imported shale gas from America for its chemical plant in Grangemouth. It said its facility would otherwise have been closed with the loss of 10,000 jobs – and its chief executive accused the government of hypocrisy over its position on fracking. Ms Davidson demanded yesterday that Nicola Sturgeon “gives the country some proper answers” on whether the process will be given the green light in Scotland. The moratorium was put in place to give the government time to assess research and carry out a public consultation.
Times 30th Sept 2016 read more »
Coal-fired power stations produced the lowest share of UK electricity on record in the second quarter of 2016 following the closures of several plants. Coal accounted for just under 6pc of electricity generation in the three months to June, down from more than 20pc in the same period of 2015, the latest Government figures show. Gas increased from just under 30pc to more than 45pc in the same period, representing “a large switch in generation from coal to gas, which will have reduced carbon dioxide emissions”, according to the latest statistical bulletin. The figures highlight the dramatic decline of the fuel that was the dominant source of electricity in the UK as recently as 2013.
Telegraph 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Guardian 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Climate
The world could hit two degrees Celsius of warming – the point at which many scientists believe climate change will become dangerous – as early as 2050, a group of leading experts has warned. In a report called The Truth About Climate Change, they said many people seemed to think of global warming as “abstract, distant and even controversial”. But the planet is now heating up “much faster” than anticipated, said Professor Sir Robert Watson, a former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and one of the authors of the report. If their analysis is correct, it means the majority of people alive today will experience what it is like to live on a dangerously overheated planet.
Independent 30th Sept 2016 read more »