Hinkley
Over a third of major infrastructure projects branded ‘undeliverable’ or ‘in doubt’, report finds. The projects, which could include the HS2 rail line and Hinkley Point nuclear power station, run the risk of missing targets because of ‘unrealistic expectations’, the National Audit Office has said. A National Audit Office report spoke of a history of “unrealistic expectations and over-optimism” as it revealed that 37 of the 106 projects due to be completed within the next five years have been branded “unachievable” or “in-doubt” by a government body set up to monitor them. It is not known which of the projects, which include universal credit, the HS2 rail line and a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point – have been given red or amber red warnings by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, putting their ability to meet targets for cost and timetables under threat.
Telegraph 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Daily Mail 6th Jan 2016 read more »
The warning is contained in a progress report from the National Audit Office into major government projects including infrastructure and construction jobs. The watchdog casts doubt on attempts to improve performance and said: “The public sector has had a poor track record in delivering projects successfully.”
Construction Enquirer 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Hinkley Point power station may be one of around a third of major Government projects at risk of failure to meet targets on budgets and timetables, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office (NAO) said it was “of particular concern” that the list of projects rated red or amber-red – meaning their successful delivery is either “unachievable” or “in doubt” – included 37 of the 106 due to be concluded within five years. The overall proportion rated red or amber-red by the Government’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority increased from 16% in 2012 to 34% in June 2015, due to the addition of more risky schemes to a portfolio totalling 149 major projects with a combined whole-life cost of £511 billion, said the NAO.
Western Morning News 6th Jan 2015 read more »
Energy Policy
Former energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey slams Conservative ministers, as Carbon Brief investigation reveals energy bills likely to be lower than thought in 2020. Former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Sir Edward Davey has launched a blistering attack on the government, accusing it of “butchering the UK’s renewables on the basis of Alice in Wonderland economics”. Davey, who was knighted in the New Year’s Honours List and is currently chair of community energy specialist Mongoose Energy, offered the blunt assessment in response to revelations official government projections suggest average domestic energy bills will be lower in 2020 than previously thought. An investigation by the Carbon Brief website today detailed responses to a long-running Freedom of Information request relating to the government’s levy control framework (LCF) spending cap for clean energy subsidies and ministers’ repeated assertion the cap is on track to be breached by £1.5bn in 2020, leading to higher energy bills for households. Ministers have repeatedly claimed steep cuts to renewable energy subsidies were urgently required to keep rising energy bills under control. In response to an FOI request from Carbon Brief the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released a series of emails between officials last summer showing that even before ministers moved to slash renewable energy subsidies the government expected an average household energy bill would be £1,222 in 2020, around seven per cent lower than the £1,319 projection made the previous year. Davey said the revelations provided further evidence the government had slashed renewable energy subsidies on the false premise there was excessive upward pressure on energy bills. He also urged ministers to now release the full detail of the calculations used to project a £1.5bn overspend on the LCF.
Business Green 5th Jan 2016 read more »
The success of Energy Secretary Amber Rudd’s energy policy reset will rely heavily on external factors aligning in the early months of this year, a former shadow energy minister has warned. Rudd, under the heavy influence of the Treasury, backs shale gas development at the expense of renewable energy and carbon capture and storage support in a bid to keep consumer costs low. But former shadow minister Tom Greatrex says that the position leaves the government vulnerable to events beyond its control at a time when generation capacity remains a concern. In an exclusive column for Utility Week Greatrex warns that the government will rely on a continued mild, wet and windy winter to safeguard against supply shortfall and keep consumer winter heating costs low. Also the Competition and Markets Authority investigation will need to provide an outcome which is satisfactory to both industry and consumers alike and the oil price will need to recover to levels which makes shale development a viable investment, Greatrex warns.
Utility Week 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Dounreay
It takes dedication and planning to handle some of the world’s most difficult tasks. They are not always the most spectacular or the largest, but it many cases they are deemed to be worthy of going a little more than the extra mile. Mention the words “nuclear industry” and many people are concerned. Yet the decommissioning of nuclear establishments in the UK has created a whole industry to deal with this delicate issue – and into this arena has stepped the Sheffield-based SCX Special Projects division. In simple terms the decommissioning of old nuclear power stations requires the removal of nuclear waste. Not such as easy job when the presence of potentially lethal radioactive materials require processes to handle dangerous materials that are hazardous to the natural environment, expensive and require detailed and experienced approaches. Dounreay Site Restoration Limited in Scotland is considered to be one of the largest and most difficult nuclear decommissioning challenges in Europe. From 1954 until 1994 it was the centre for experimental fast breeder testing and development, made up of 180 facilities including three reactors, chemical reprocessing plants and various waste facilities. At an estimated total cost of £4.5bn, the mass clean-up is scheduled to finish in 2030 but access to parts of the site will be restricted for a further 250 years. For an in-depth process of this calibre you need to be able to rely on your equipment.
Materials Handling World 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Wylfa
The decommissioning of Wylfa and future development of Wylfa Newydd power station on Anglesey will provide opportunities for Welsh businesses and employment in the area, according to the Welsh Government. The nuclear power station has now ceased generating electricity after about 45 years. Subject to planning consents, the proposed new power station, Wylfa Newydd, is expected to start generating electricity by the mid-2020s. It is expected to employ about 8,500 people during the peak of the construction period, with the operational workforce then numbering almost 1,000 for the 60-plus years of the power station’s life.
Insider Media 5th Jan 2016 read more »
NDA
The NDA has published its draft strategy and business plan documents for formal consultation.
NDA 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Integrated Impact Assessment on Draft Strategy.
NDA 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Summary of responses to engagement on the early version of our Draft Strategy published in 2015. The report also includes NDA response to comments.
NDA 5th Jan 2016 read more »
NDA Value Framework: How we make decisions.
NDA 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Plutonium
Japan will send a huge cache of plutonium — enough to produce 50 nuclear bombs — to the United States as part of a deal to return the material that was used for research, reports and officials said Tuesday. The plutonium stockpile, provided by the US, Britain and France decades ago, has caused some disquiet given that Japan has said it has the ability to produce a nuclear weapon even if it chooses not to. Some 331 kilograms (730 pounds) of the highly fissionable material will be sent by ship to a nuclear facility in South Carolina by the end of March, Kyodo News reported Monday in a dispatch from Washington that cited unnamed Japanese government sources. The shipment, which comes ahead of a nuclear security summit in Washington in March, is meant to underscore both countries’ commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and is part of a deal they made in 2014.
Yahoo 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Daily Mail 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Energy Supplies
Letter Struan Stevenson: WE are growing accustomed to the wearisome propaganda that spouts from the wind industry’s mouthpiece Renewable UK, but its claim that “wind power provided enough electricity to meet the annual needs of more than 8.25 million homes last year” fails to tell the whole story. Ofgem, the energy regulator, has warned that as we continue to shut our old, coal-fired power stations like Longannet to meet EU CO2 emission targets, Britain’s electricity security of supply is on a knife-edge. Any surge in energy consumption during a severe cold snap would plunge the country into blackouts. The reason for this catastrophic energy shortfall is not difficult to find; under SNP plans no new nuclear plants will be constructed in Scotland, due to the refusal of the SNP Government to give planning approval and the hysterical opposition from the Greens and their fellow-travellers who think the next Fukushima-style tsunami is about to hit the UK. If we are going to tackle the looming energy crisis then we must also exploit our massive reserves of shale gas, which would help us to reduce our dependency on expensive imported gas. With an estimated 200 trillion cubic feet of shale gas deposits discovered in Lancashire alone, enough to power Brit ain for 65 years, we could be looking at the biggest energy find since North Sea oil in the 1960s. But it is typical of the feverish nature of the climate change debate in Britain that this massive find has been either entirely ignored or robustly attacked as anti-green.
Herald 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Electricity Markets
The boss of one of Britain’s biggest energy companies has hit out at the UK’s competition watchdog over its claim that big suppliers like his are overcharging customers, accusing it of getting its calculations wrong. The Competition and Markets Authority surprised many in the energy industry when it ruled in the summer that the “big six” suppliers had overcharged customers by about £1.7bn per year between 2010 and 2014. But Alistair Phillips-Davies, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy, said the CMA had failed to prove its case, accusing it of substandard work. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Phillips-Davies said: “[The CMA] have completely failed to substantiate the evidence they have got and I think they have overestimated what they have done. Their work is not of the highest quality, it is fair to say.”
FT 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Cybersecurity
Hackers brought down the power supply to hundreds of homes in Ukraine last week, in a cyber attack believed to be the first ever to result in a power outage. The Ukrainian energy ministry said it was probing a “suspected” cyber attack on the power grid, targeting several regional power companies, which the country’s intelligence service blamed on “Russian special services”. Moscow has not responded to the allegation.
FT 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Nuclear Co-operation
This year is set to be the year when the US forges new nuclear partnerships with China and India, and could explore joint projects in third countries, with Westinghouse Electric and the Hualong nuclear power company in negotiations for such ventures. But, given previous mutual security and non-proliferation concerns, this newfound enthusiasm may also be breeding new anxieties.
South China Morning Post 5th Jan 2016 read more »
China
China General Nuclear (CGN) has announced that two of its new nuclear power reactors – Fangchenggang unit 1 and Yangjiang unit 3 – both completed 168-hour test runs and entered commercial operation on 1 January.
World Nuclear News 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Nuclear advocates take hope from China’s plan for 58GW of new nuclear capacity, writes Zhang Chun. But nuclear’s share of China’s power supply is in long term decline, and the target is likely to be missed as faster, cheaper, nimbler renewables surge ahead.
Ecologist 5th Jan 2016 read more »
North Korea
North Korea announced today it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb – generally much more powerful than an atomic bomb – which, if confirmed, would mark a stunning step forward in its nuclear development. “The republic’s first hydrogen bomb test has been successfully performed at 10:00am on January 6, 2016, based on the strategic determination of the Workers’ Party,” a state television news reader announced. “With the perfect success of our historic H-bomb, we have joined the rank of advanced nuclear states,” the announcer said, adding that the test was of a “miniaturised” device. The surprise test was personally ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and came just two days before his birthday.
South China Morning Post 6th Jan 2016 read more »
North Korea would possibly consider a nuclear strike if they thought they could survive the inevitable counter-strike, a former British ambassador to the country has said. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, John Everard said: If they believe they can survive a nuclear counter-strike, the possibility that they may launch a nuclear first strike remains.
ITV 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Pynongyang claims it has successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb. This is how it got there.
Guardian 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Korean Central Television, North Korea’s state-owned broadcaster, announces the testing of a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday morning. The broadcast from Pyongyang includes images of former North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, as well as newsreel footage of scientists working at a nuclear facilities.
Guardian 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Reuters 6th Jan 2016 read more »
South Korea’s meteorological agency says the earthquake detected near a known North Korean nuclear site is similar to the one detected during North Korea’s third nuclear test.
Daily Mail 6th Jan 2016 read more »
It’s the unexpected apparent detonation of a powerful nuclear weapon, now in the possession of an unpredictable, paranoid dictator. But how worried should the world really be by North Korean claims that it successfully conducted its fourth nuclear test on Wednesday morning?
Guardian 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Kenya – nuclear security
What of the nightmare scenario—a terrorist group seizing control of a nuclear power plant and getting hold of its core? It has been quiet in much of Kenya since the attack on Garissa, but there is a sense here that al-Shabaab is not weaker—just laying low, possibly planning another major attack. The South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies convened a conference in Nairobi in September on United Nations Resolution 1540, which bans non-state actors from getting their hands on nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Speaking on the sidelines, Nicolas Kasprzyk, a non-proliferation expert at South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies, is confident that Kenya can keep a nuclear facility safe. He thinks public perception, not actual safety, is the big hurdle. “Clearly more needs to be done to fight this situation with al-Shabaab. How can you build trust in your nuclear program if you’re perceived as not managing to contain the terror threat?” he said. But as proof that Kenya is up to the task, he pointed to its experience protecting medical research facilities with specimens that could easily be turned into biological weapons. There are two level-3 biosafety laboratories (which can handle all but the most lethal diseases) in the vicinity of Nairobi that have been kept secure—both from terrorists and from human error—for years now.
Defense One 4th Nov 2015 read more »
Biomass
The European commission has launched an investigation into the UK’s plans to support the conversion of part of its Drax coal power plant to biomass. The commission, which late last year gave approval for the German energy group RWE to undertake a similar conversion at its Lynemouth plant, wants to ensure the Drax plans are in line with EU state aid rules. The carbon footprint is reduced by 86% by burning wood pellets rather than coal, according to figures audited by PwC. The commission said it “fully supports member state efforts to increase the use of renewable energy and pursue EU energy and climate objectives. At the same time, EU state aid rules ma ke sure that the cost of such support for consumers is limited and does not give certain operators an unfair advantage over competitors.”
Guardian 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Telegraph 5th Jan 2015 read more »
British Airways says that it has been forced to shelve a groundbreaking £340m scheme to create 16m gallons of jet fuel from London’s rubbish every year, partly due to a lack of government support. The Green Sky project was due to open in 2017 at an ex-oil refinery in Thurrock, Essex, where it would have turned into gas 575,000 tonnes of household waste that would otherwise have been landfilled or incinerated. Enough green fuel would have been produced to power all BA’s yearly flights from London City airport twice over, with carbon savings equivalent to taking 150,000 cars off the road. But BA told the Guardian that the project had now been mothballed partly because of low crude oil prices, jitters among investors, and a lack of policy engagement from 10 Downing Street.
Guardian 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Renewables
A study just published in the International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management says that renewable energy auctions do not reduce costs of renewable energy projects any more than conventional feed-in tariffs.
Dave Toke’s Blog 29th Dec 2015 read more »
Renewables – tidal
Atlantis Resources’ next generation 1.5MW tidal turbine, the AR1500, will undergo a six week test programme at the National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth. The tests aim to de-risk the AR1500’s deployment by proving the reliability and validating the performance of its power train system. The Glasgow-based Offshore Renewable Energy agency (ORE) is working with the tidal marine power giant Atlantis on the €1.3 million Eurostars project to drive forward the development and deployment of the AR1500 tidal turbine, the series which is to be installed at MeyGen, the UK’s first tidal array, in the Pentland Firth. The tests are the critical final stage of development that will give Atlantis, MeyGen and their investors the confidence that the turbine is ready to be deployed and to start generating electricity.
Scottish Energy News 6th Jan 2016 read more »
Renewables – solar
With over half a million solar installations in the UK it is inevitable that some will, on occasion, experience technical problems. The vast majority of solar companies are adept at carrying out repairs and in many cases work will be covered by warranty or insurance policy. However, following the closure of a number of solar firms last year in the wake of the government’s controversial solar subsidy cuts, some customers have been left asking what happens if a solar panel experiences a fault and the original installer has gone out of business? That is the question the Solar Trade Association (STA) is seeking to answer with the launch of a new ‘Solar Repair Agreement’ designed to make it easier for installers to repair and maintain solar arrays that they did not originally install.
Business Green 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Renewables – wind
2015 was a record-breaking year for the British wind industry, with onshore and offshore farms providing a larger-than-ever share of the UK’s electricity, according to new data released today by National Grid. Last year the UK generated 11 per cent of its electricity from wind, up from 9.5 per cent in 2014. Wind turbines provided enough electricity to power 8.25 million homes, representing more 30 per cent of UK households, according to analysis of the data by trade body RenewableUK.
Business Green 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Renewables – Russia and Central Asia
Renewable energy could supply Russia and Central Asian countries with all the electricity they need by 2030 − and cut costs significantly at the same time. A new study says that Russia and the countries of Central Asia could become a highly energy-competitive region by getting all their electricity from renewable sources within the next 15 years. So far, most of the region’s governments appear not to have found the will to realise this huge potential. But researchers at Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland calculate that the cost of electricity produced entirely from renewables would be half the price of modern nuclear technology and fossil-fuel burning if carbon capture and storage (CCS) had to be used. This would make all the countries more competitive by cutting their costs, but would require the building of a super-grid to allow countries to share the benefits of a range of renewable energy sources. The geographical area of the research − which did not include transport or heating − covers much of the northern hemisphere. Many of the countries in the area rely on the production and use of fossil fuels and nuclear power. As well as Russia, the researched area includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, as well as the Caucasus and Pamir regions including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Climate News Network 5th Jan 2016 read more »
Demand Management – Scotland
Green groups, opposition parties and renewable energy industry bodies have unanimously called on the Scottish Government to embrace ‘demand response’ energy efficiency measures in favour of building more costly and dirty fossil fuel power stations. WWF Scotland, Scottish Renewables and the Scottish Greens have all told edie of the need for the nation’s political parties to commit to a comprehensive national strategy to help homes and businesses reduce and manage their demand for electricity. Universities, banks, supermarkets and datacentres could act as ‘virtual power plants’, voluntarily lowering their demand for electricity and therefore avoiding the need to turn on conventional power stations, the organisations claim. “It’s far cheaper to reduce our electricity demand than it is to build new power stations that are only used for short periods of time,” said W WF Scotland’s climate and policy officer Gina Hanrahan. “If we want to cut consumer bills and lower climate emissions then demand reduction must be a central part of any future energy strategy. “Scotland’s political parties need to commit to a national strategy to help consumers and businesses cut their demand for electricity by at least 1% a year to 2030.”
Edie 5th Jan 2016 read more »
