Energy Policy
Last week, the twin pressures of pushing down energy prices and ensuring sufficient investment in capacity came into sharp tension. Centrica threatened that the competition investigation into energy markets would slow down investment in new capacity, potentially causing blackouts. Probably a situation that our politicians want to avoid. This week, the SMF hosted Professor Dieter Helm, expert economist on energy at the University of Oxford to talk about the state of energy policy. Professor Helm firstly showed how the energy market and energy policy as it stands is failing all on three of its key objectives: Despite wanting a reduction, our carbon emissions are actually increasing, due to coal-fired power stations; Energy bills have been rising, with trust in the market so low that the CMA is being called in to investigate the market; Investment in future energy capacity is insufficient to cope with demand. Only the “good luck” of an economic downturn has bought us an extra few years.
Social Market Foundation 3rd April 2014 read more »
The environmentalist movement itself has landed us in a classic Catch-22 situation. To fight global warming, it offers us renewable energy that barely puts a dent in the problem, but is opposed to the things that would make a dent, namely nuclear power and fracking. The only way out of this bind is for the Government to bite the bullet. If it really wants to reduce our CO2 emissions, it will have to either permit fracking, allow the building of a nuclear power plant, or both. As Lovelock says: “We don’t have much choice.” Although I guess we could always build another ark.
Irish Independent 4th April 2014 read more »
Energy Costs
A new report by energy giant SSE has revealed that the government’s recent deal with EDF’s Hinkley Point nuclear power station will result in an increase in energy bills for decades to come. The current construction of the Somerset-based nuclear project is anticipated to add “considerable cost” to household bills for the next 35 years, with the strike price of electricity generated through the power station contracted at roughly double the current price of power.
Boiler Juice 3rd April 2014 read more »
Utilities
The chief executive of SSE, one of the big six energy providers, has urged the industry to move away from its confrontational stance and embrace all market reforms that benefit the customer. Alistair Phillips-Davies also called on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to undertake the widest possible investigation of all aspects of the sector in a bid to clear the air. “As privatised utilities, we should always view with humility the regulatory, political and public scrutiny on our activities,” he argued, adding: “We all have to acknowledge that energy is not perfect and we have to look at reforms that benefit the customer.”
Guardian 3rd April 2014 read more »
Energy Supplies
National Grid made special payments of £300m over the last 12 months to big energy companies – sometimes for switching off their power stations in an attempt to “balance” the system. The huge payout dwarfs the £37m paid to windfarms to remain offline over the same period to the end of February – a figure used by critics to question the advisability of supporting renewable energy. The numbers have come to light because the grid, which operates the transmission lines and pylons around the UK, has started to make them publicly available them for the first time. A spokesman for the National Grid said paying gas or wind companies not to operate might appear unusual but a range of often unforeseeable factors, such as plant breakdowns, weather patterns and other issues, made it vital to compensate them for regional asymmetries in supply and demand.
Guardian 3rd April 2014 read more »
The way America sees it, Europe has to kick the habit. The continent is dangerously addicted to Russian gas, and it needs a dose of cold turkey. US secretary of state John Kerry reinforced that message on Wednesday. Europe, he said, had to wean itself off Russian energy imports and stop the Kremlin using them as a political weapon. But kicking the addiction will be a Herculean task. Last year, Gazprom exported about 155bn cubic metres of gas to Europe, or about 31 per cent of European demand, according to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. It is unclear how it can replace those molecules. A more palatable solution could be for Europe to produce more of its own gas. But efforts to exploit European shale gas have not been encouraging. Many countries are ambivalent about fracking: France and Bulgaria have banned it.
FT 3rd April 2014 read more »
Russia stepped up the pressure on Ukraine yesterday by raising the gas price for the second time in three days and sending a reminder that it owes $2 billion in unpaid bills to Gazprom, the Kremlin’s energy giant. Ukraine condemned the move, which amounts to an overall price rise of 80 per cent, as politically motivated. Moscow has frequently used energy as a political weapon against its neighbours, and European customers are concerned Russia may again cut off deliveries, amid the worst East-West stand-off since the Cold War, after the annexation of Crimea.
Times 4th April 2014 read more »
The stand-off with Moscow over Ukraine could hardly have come at a better time for Europe’s troubled renewable energy industry. Energy security has always been a big selling point for wind farms and solar plants, along with a desire to tackle climate change. An EU-wide target to gain 20 per cent of the bloc’s energy from such sources prompted a splurge of green subsidies that meant renewable generators made up 40 per cent of the region’s power capacity in 2013, up from 24 per cent in 2000. Just over 70 per cent of all the new generating capacity installed in the bloc last year was renewable, the sixth year running that more than 55 per cent of new EU power capacity has come from such schemes. However, the eurozone crisis and the manufacturing renaissance led by the US shale revolution’s effect on energy prices has sparked a rethink about the cost of renewabl e subsidies over the past three years.
FT 3rd April 2014 read more »
Nuclear Security
The Nuclear Security Summit was overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis, but two London academics argue that too much is at stake for the new US-Russian freeze to derail progress. During President Obama’s post-summit press conference, journalists made no reference to nuclear security, focusing instead on US foreign policy and the new threat posed by Russia. What, then, does the situation in the Ukraine mean for the nuclear security summit and its outcomes? Will the growing gap between Russia and Western powers undermine international nuclear security efforts?
Guardian 3rd April 2014 read more »
Decommissioning
A FURNESS firm is behind the UK’s first decommissioning conference set to take place next week. TotalDECOM is the brainchild of Resource Marketing’s owner George Colquhoun, who came up with the idea in a bid to bring together experts from the oil and gas sector with those from the nuclear and offshore industries. The conference – the first of its kind – has received industry backing from big players including the likes of Sellafield and Britain’s Energy Coast and will take place next Tuesday and Wednesday at the Hilton in Glasgow.
Whitehaven News 2nd April 2014 read more »
West-based law firm Burges Salmon has working with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority during negotiations on a major new contract. Burges Salmon, which has an office in Bristol, advised the authority in the bidding process that led to Cavendish Fluor Partnership being appointed preferred bidder to take over ownership of Magnox Limited and Research Sites Restoration Ltd.
Western Daily Press 3rd April 2014 read more »
Sellafield
A CONTROVERSIAL cull of deer trapped between two fences at Sellafield has taken place – with three animals being shot dead.
Whitehaven News 3rd April 2014 read more »
Oh deer, what happened? Sellafield, our oldest and most expensive nuclear plant, has two new security fences. Unfortunately, they were built on either side of the habitat of three roe deer that could not get out. What to do? The Whitehaven News reports that Sellafield Ltd have shot the deer.
Independent 3rd April 2014 read more »
Russia
The US Department of Energy has suspended cooperation with its Russian counterpart on several experimental projects that focused on the peaceful nuclear energy, a spokesperson with Rosatom nuclear agency told RIA-Novosti Thursday. “The US side has informed us about a freeze on some joint projects in the sphere of peaceful nuclear energy. We are talking specifically about a series of technical meetings, including scientific ones,” the source with the state-run Rosatom agency confirmed. The United States cited “Russia’s action in Ukraine” as the reason for its decision to put nuclear cooperation on hold.
RIA Novosti 3rd April 2014 read more »
Finland
Originally a third nuclear reactor at Olkiluoto was supposed to pay about € 3 billion , but the construction of the final price is expected to rise to 8.5 billion . At this price the Olkiluoto is more expensive than any skyscraper or a luxury casino . The most expensive single commercial building is known to have a casino hotel in Singapore Marina Bay Sands , which cost in today’s money of EUR 5.2 billion . The price of the Olkiluoto number three would have been able to build in New York City , three new One World Trade Center skyscrapers .
Helsingen Sanomat 2nd April 2014 read more »
Woes continue to mount around the construction of Finland’s Olkiluoto 3, the new generation European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), as new cost estimates for its completion have reached new heights, hitting the $11 billion dollar mark, Hesingen Sanomat reported, outpacing expenditures on ultra-luxury hotels and paying for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center three times over. The project, which as of last year this time was already running $7 billion, or €5 billion, over its originally estimated price tag of €3 billion, sheds a dim light on the practicality and expense of the first-of-its kind reactor, which has been touted as a revolution in nuclear power production. Nils Bøhmer, Bellona’s general director and nuclear physicist called the new round of cost overruns “absolutely insane” and questioned why such lavish sums could not be expended in the field of far cheaper renewable and alternative energy sources.
Bellona 2nd April 2014 read more »
US – Savannah River
Veteran nuclear energy activists have formed a new public interest watchdog group to monitor Savannah River Site activities. Tom Clements, formerly of environmental groups Friends of the Earth and the South Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club, is the director of the new group called SRS Watch. Frances Close, who established the SRS watchdog Energy Research Foundation in 1980, is the group’s president. SRS Watch will monitor U.S. Energy Department decisions on cleanup of high-level nuclear waste, receipt of nuclear materials from overseas, operation of the H-Canyon reprocessing plant and the mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility, according to a news release.
Augusta Chronicle 3rd April 2013 read more »
US – Radwaste
Inspectors ventured into an underground nuclear waste disposal vault in New Mexico on Wednesday to begin an on-site investigation of a radiation leak nearly seven weeks ago that exposed 21 workers and forced a shutdown of the facility. The mission by experts from the company that manages the site marked the first time since the mishap that workers have been sent deep into the salt caverns of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, where drums of plutonium-tainted refuse from nuclear weapons factories and laboratories are buried.
Chicago Tribune 2nd April 2014 read more »
Nearly 2,000 capsules containing radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation should be moved, in part because of earthquake danger, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General.
Seattle Times 2nd April 2014 read more »
North Korea
The United States, Japan and South Korea will meet next week to seek ways to persuade North Korea to give up its atomic weapons program, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday, just days after Pyongyang warned of a “new form” of nuclear test.
Reuters 3rd April 2014 read more »
Nuclear Convoys
A new row over a secret nuclear weapons convoy which has travelled through Cumbernauld several times a year has taken a new twist at North Lanarkshire Council. Last week, we told how Scottish Nationalist Councillor Paddy Hogg had raised a motion condeming the move, amidst fears that a catastrophe could result if the convoy had an accident. He also slammed the fact that the council is trading on its nuclear free status while allowing the convoy to pass through. The route involves not only the M80 but the M74 on its route to Coulport naval base. Now the row has intensified after Councillor Hogg’s motion was defeated by 32 votes to 20 at a full meeting of the council on Thursday, March 27 but the matter has not ended there. For it’s emerged that even in these times of austerity, council taxpayers’ money is being spent to belong to the nuclear-free group which incorprates local authorities across the UK. Councillor Hogg said: “This is farcical. “The council pays at least £2,332 each year to be a member council of the Nuclear Free Authorities organisation. “Yet it refuses to express great concern about nuclear warheads regularly travelling on North Lanarkshire Council’s roads,’’ he added. Councillor Hogg also believes that the Labour Party which so closely allied itself with anti-nuclear movements in times past is no longer willing to speak out against the convoy.
Cumbernauld News 3rd April 2014 read more »
Renewables – solar
SolarAid hits major milestone on its path to eradicating the kerosene lamp in Africa. For SunnyMoney’s Victor Koyier, convincing head teachers of the benefits of solar lamps is crucial to his mission to eradicate the kerosene lamp from Africa by the end of the decade. Koyier, who runs the Kenyan schools campaign for SolarAid’s African outfit, spends his working days visiting regions of the country to meet with head teachers and school children to show them how solar power can be a clean, cheap and reliable alternative to its polluting and more dangerous fossil fuelled alternative. “Selling through schools is how we can reach each and every household,” he tells BusinessGreen. “Head teachers are the key influencers within the African communities. If anything is to change it has to come through a very influential member of the community and we use the head teachers to trail the message that kerosene’s bad and the alternative lighting could be solar lighting, and that’s been very successful.”
Business Green 3rd April 2014 read more »
The UK solar sector has installed around 1GW of new capacity across rooftops and land since the start of this year, despite the record levels of flooding that threatened to prevent developers meeting a planned subsidy cut this week. A number of developers this week confirmed they managed to complete large scale arrays ahead of the 1 April deadline, when support falls from from 1.6 to 1.4 Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) per MWh.
Business Green 3rd April 2014 read more »
Renewables – Wind
RenewableUK says a new report which shows that investment in the British wind industry increased by nearly 50% last year to £3.5 billion provides more compelling evidence of the case to develop the UK’s excellent wind energy resources. The study “Who’s Winning the Clean Energy Race? 2013” by the independent Pew Charitable Trusts, says investment in all clean energy technologies grew by 13% to £7.5 billion in the UK last year. The report highlights what it describes as the UK’s “abundant offshore wind resources and ongoing commitment to develop the sector” as factors which have “helped to bolster clean energy investment, enabling the UK to jump from seventh to fourth among G20 countries”. RenewableUK’s deputy Chief Executive Maf Smith said: “This report provides yet more compelling evidence that the British wind industry is a key part of our nation’s economy, attracting billions in investment and creating new clean-tech jobs. Only last month Siemens announced that it will be employing 1,000 people in Hull. These are the new green-collar jobs that will keep Britain’s future generations employed in the decades ahead. “That’s why it’s all the more puzzling that the Tory party is apparently turning its back on the cheapest form of renewable energy, onshore wind, to appease a minority of their out-of-touch backbenchers. When voters make their choice next year on who they want to run the country, they won’t look kindly on politicians who carelessly undermine Britain’s growth industries just because they’re running scared of UKIP”.
Renewable UK 3rd April 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Bill McKibben: As scientists laid bare the impacts of climate change, the oil and gas giant – Exxon Mobil – said climate policies are highly unlikely to stop it digging up fossil fuels. So what are we going to do about it? On Monday the company issued two reports, in formal response to a shareholder resolution that demanded they disclose their carbon risk and talk about how they planned to deal with the fact that they and other oil giants have many times more carbon in their collective reserves than scientists say we can safely burn. The company said that government restrictions that would force it to keep its reserves in the ground were “highly unlikely,” and that they would not only dig them all up and burn them, but would continue to search for more gas and oil — a search that currently consumes about $100 million of its investors’ money every single day. “Based on this analysis, we are confident that none of our hydrocarbon reserves are now or will become ‘stranded,’” they said. So now, with that information clearly on the table, it’s time for college boards and foundation heads, church denominations and city mayors to act and act firmly. By divesting — by announcing that they are breaking ties with these companies — they will begin the process of politically bankrupting them. Of taking away the social license that allows them to act with such consummate arrogance, on the very day that the planet’s scientists laid bare the impact of climate change on everything from crop yields to civil wars.
Guardian 3rd April 2014 read more »
A long-dead Dutch petroleum engineer may be to blame for vast exaggerations in America’s shale oil and gas reserves, according to sceptics who are doubtful about the White House’s long-term hopes for energy independence. For decades, energy companies have used an equation known as the Arps formula to estimate the potential of oil wells. Calculated by extrapolating historical production into the future, the method was conceived in 1945 by Jan Arps, a Dutch-born oilman working for the defunct British-American Oil Producing Company. This formula, experts lament, has been wrongly appropriated by the shale industry to predict how much energy could be generated through fracking. Recent downgrades in estimates of US shale reserves have been blamed, in part, on Arps’ limitations.
Times 4th April 2014 read more »
Climate
Two researchers who tried to work out the economics of reducing global climate change to a tolerable level have come up with a perhaps surprising answer: essentially, we do not and cannot know what it would cost. Even more surprising, probably, is their conclusion: not knowing is no excuse for not acting. “Mitigating climate change must proceed regardless of long-run economic analyses”, they conclude, “or risk making the world uninhabitable.”
Climate Network 3rd April 2014 read more »
From food shortages to endangered species, there were plenty of headline-grabbing findings in the UN’s latest big climate report. We take a look at how the UK’s newspapers covered the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report. The WG2 report got covered by all the UK’s major newspapers, with a wide variety of climate change-related topics hitting headlines. While slightly fewer articles seemed to have been printed on WG2’s findings compared to when the WG1 report came out last year, our analysis suggests there was more depth and breadth to the reporting this time round. The final instalment of the IPCC’s report is due to be released in just over a week, on Monday 7th April. Journalists are already sharpening their pencils, no doubt.
Carbon Brief 3rd April 2014 read more »
