Hinkley
Final negotiations over Britain’s first nuclear plant in a generation are focused on arrangements to share any potential cost overruns or windfall refinancing gains. Ministers are considering bearing some of the construction risk for the £14bn project, in return for a lower subsidy level and a share of the spoils if a refinancing leaves EDF enjoying bumper profits. An agreement will see the energy company a guaranteed “strike price”, reported to be between £90 and £93, for each megawatt-hour of electricity Hinkley generates over a 35-year contract.
Telegraph 5th Oct 2013 read more »
With a deal over subsidies now weeks away, Emily Gosden looks back at the tortuous path to this point and the challenges that remain. This time, though, sources on both sides of the talks appear confident. Reports suggest that strike price negotiations are now focused between £90 and £93. As The Sunday Telegraph reveals today, the final price remains dependent on agreement over gain-sharing if EDF enjoys a windfall from refinancing, or pain-sharing in the event of cost overruns. But agreement on both issues is expected to be reached. Heads of terms could well be agreed within two weeks, with key points published, before being laid before Parliament. Yet even if agreement comes, it will not be the end of the story. The project will need to clear European Union state aid approval; several requests, covering different aspects of the contract are believed to have been submitted by the Government. “The state aid process can appear opaque,” Chris White, partner at law firm Pinsent Masons says. If the EU decides to investigate, it may take up to 18 months to conclude. If state aid approval is denied, it is the company that is liable to repay any unjustified aid. Both EDF and the Government have long suggested that they are confident they will get approval — but there is little clarity on when that will be granted. “It is very important that we clarify this clearance to make our final investment decision” de Rivaz has said. China’s General Nuclear Power Group has long been seen as the likely candidate; both Davey and Fallon have met the group in recent months, and there is widespread optimism that they will take a stake. But not all in Westminster are relaxed about China’s role in a project of such national significance, and any deal is likely to face scrutiny. Without doubt, agreement over subsidies would bring Britain’s nuclear renaissance closer than ever before. But only when state aid approval and funding are all in place, and EDF takes a positive final investment decision, will ministers finally be able to say with confidence that the sun is rising on a new nuclear age.
Telegraph 5th Oct 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Ed Miliband’s threatened price freeze will be resisted by people representing the big six power companies who have been put in key places in government. ScottishPower, one of the UK’s big six energy companies, turned up the public heat on Labour leader Ed Miliband last week by warning that investment in new power stations will be endangered by his plans for a price freeze. But it was not just Labour that was coming under pressure. The industry’s considerable lobbying powers were acknowledged at the Conservative party conference when the energy minister, Michael Fallon, referred to the sector’s trade body, Energy UK, as “one of the strongest and most well-argued lobbies there is”. But the real lobbying is going on behind the scenes, where the major players have a large network of individuals defending the sector’s interests. Energy companies, including Centrica, EDF and RWE npower, have placed dozens of staff in government departments on secondments since 2008, either funded by the taxpayer or provided for nothing. (Civil servants also travel in the opposite direction and spend time in energy companies.) By the end of 2012 almost two dozen were in place in the energy department. Tom Burke, a former head of Friends of the Earth who worked as special adviser to several Conservative ministers, said: “The secondments are pernicious, but the real power is how [the energy companies] shape the discourse through the media – that is where their many lobbyists do their real work. They constantly feed hard-pressed journalists lines their editors will like.” The energy industry’s access to ministers is shown by 195 declared meetings between Decc ministers and energy companies and their lobby groups in the 10 months after the 2010 general election alone. There were 17 meetings with green campaign groups in the same period.
Observer 6th Oct 2013 read more »
Every British household will pay an average of more than £400 in higher bills over the next six years to pay for subsidies under controversial Government plans to hit green power targets. The money will go solely to paying for otherwise uneconomic offshore wind turbines, onshore wind farms, biomass plants, landfill gas sites and hydro power plants, new figures show. The first analysis of newly agreed prices paid to “green” generators, carried out by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, shows that the total subsidy will be nearly £22 billion by 2020. The subsidies are paid for by consumers and businesses through their annual bills and passed to the green energy generators. Half of energy bills are paid by business, with the other half by domestic consumers, and the total subsidy divided among British households equals £425 per household.
Telegraph 5th Oct 2013 read more »
Ministers are under renewed pressure to scrap their controversial green “carbon tax” after delays in European Union state aid left British heavy industry without promised protection from the costs of the levy. Tata Steel and BASF have warned that the so-called carbon price floor — levied on fossil fuels used in power generation — is putting them at a competitive disadvantage. The Government promised that energy-intensive industries would be offered a £100m compensation package to protect them from the unilateral tax, which was introduced last April. But the compensation has been held up for several months awaiting EU state aid approval, with businesses already facing millions of pounds in costs. Ministers said last October that they expected EU approval “by the summer of 2013”, but last night disclosed the earliest a resolution would come would be the end of this year.
Telegraph 5th Oct 2013 read more »
Scotland
POWER bills could fall significantly under independence if the state broke the stranglehold of the private energy companies and took on many of their functions for the wider benefit of society, according to a new expert paper.
Sunday Herald 6th Oct 2013 read more »
SCOTLAND should withdraw from the UK-wide energy market and put control over its own resources into public hands, a radical new report declares today. Published by the left-wing Jimmy Reid Foundation amid growing anger over the costs of Britain’s energy bills, the report says that, with either independence or devo-max, a new public corporation should be put in charge of running the grid, pricing electricity and investing in new energy infrastructure. It would then pour billions of pounds into boosting Scotland’s green energy potential, and also reduce the flow of oil coming from the North Sea, in a bid to cut CO2 -emissions. Backed by the Scottish Greens – who are hosting their conference in Inverness this weekend – the authors argue that in private hands the UK energy market is on the point of collapse, lacks investment and is pushing up bills for hard-pressed consumers.
Scotland on Sunday 6th Oct 2013 read more »
The campaign for a Yes vote in the independence referendum is this weekend launching its bid for Scotland’s green vote. Giving the country more control over its land, sea and air will enable the development of better policies to protect and sustain the natural environment and to combat pollution, says Yes Scotland. But this is disputed by Better Together, which is campaigning for a No vote in next year’s referendum. Breaking apart the UK will make it harder to tackle global environmental problems, it argues.
Sunday Herald 6th Oct 2013 read more »
Sellafield
The Independent is full of the shock being expressed at the new contract for Sellafield companies. This is not shocking. What is utterly shocking is that these companies are being employed by the taxpayer to disperse radioactive waste to the environment in order to clear the decks for more (waste is being dispersed to the sea and air through reprocessing, to our homes through metal “recycling” and to our groundwater through landfill and the push for geological dumping).
Radiation Free Lakeland 5th Oct 2013 read more »
Submarines
A major nuclear incident was narrowly averted at the heart of Britain’s Royal Navy submarine fleet, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. The failure of both the primary and secondary power sources of coolant for nuclear reactors at the Devonport dockyard in Plymouth on 29 July last year followed warnings in previous years of just such a situation. Experts yesterday compared the crisis at the naval base, operated by the Ministry of Defence and government engineering contractors Babcock Marine, with the Fukushima Daiichi power-station meltdown in Japan in 2011. John Large, an independent nuclear adviser who led the team that conducted radiation analysis on the Russian Kursk submarine which sank in the Barents Sea in 2000, said: “It is unbelievable that this happened. It could have been very serious. Things like this shouldn’t happen. It is a fundamental that these fail-safe requirements work. It had all the seriousness of a major meltdown – a major radioactive release.”
Independent 6th Oct 2013 read more »
Iran
What to make of the latest alleged assassination in Iran of a senior officer in the Revolutionary Guards just as Iran and the US move towards negotiations? Is it a last-minute attempt by Israel or the Iranian dissident group the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) to sabotage talks – or at least to show that they are still players in the decades-long struggle between the government in Tehran and its many antagonists? The first account on an Iranian website stated that Mojtaba Ahmadi, the head of Iranian cyber warfare, had been found shot in the head outside Tehran. The Revolutionary Guards issued a statement denying that he had been assassinated, but admitted there had been a “horrific incident” which it was investigating. The killing appeared to be the latest in a string of killings, since 2007, in which five Iranians associated with the country’s nuclear programme have been murdered in professional attacks. Men on motorcycles operating on the basis of good intelligence have stuck magnetically attachable bombs to their victims’ cars.
Independent 6th Oct 2013 read more »
President Barack Obama has disclosed that US intelligence agencies believe Iran continues to be a year or more away from building a nuclear weapon.
London Evening Standard 5th Oct 2013 read more »
Renewables
Investing in sustainable green-energy projects can be a way to help the environment while pocketing a decent return. This week there have been four new, but offbeat, opportunities offered to investors. But whether you’re keen to be green or simply attracted by the high returns offered, it’s important to understand the risks when you stray from the mainstream.
Independent 4th Oct 2013 read more »
According to Hetas, the industry regulatory body, about 175,000 households are installing a woodburner each year, five times more than in 2007. The trend has led to an increase in the number of installers registered with Hetas, up from 791 in 2007 to 3,252 today. Experts say sales of woodburners began to increase at the height of the recession as homeowners tried to reduce energy bills.
Times 6th Oct 2013 read more »
Perth-based SSE owns 31% of Aquamarine, which has so far spent upwards of £70 million during eight years of trying to commercialise its Oyster wave turbine. SSE’s decision to pull back from plans to develop four 200MW wave and tidal energy farms in waters near Orkney sparked concerns it might also destabilise Aquamarine by seeking to exit. But insiders at the utility indicated its commitment to Aquamarine as a company will not be affected.
Sunday Herald 6th Oct 2013 read more »
Greenpeace
Protests were held in cities across Britain and around the world on Saturday to show support for the 28 Greenpeace activists and two journalists currently being held by the Russian authorities on charges of piracy. Even as the vigils were taking place, the Russian authorities shrugged off the controversy, saying that the group’s protest at an Arctic oil platform owned by state-controlled firm Gazprom had been “pure provocation”.
Observer 6th Oct 2013 read more »
Jude Law and Damon Albarn have joined a demonstration in central London against Russia’s detention of 30 Greenpeace activists following a protest at an Arctic oil rig.
Observer 6th Oct 2013 read more »
Almost 30 Greenpeace activists face up to 15 years in a Russian prison after protesting at an Arctic oil drilling rig. Others brought a Champions League match in Switzerland to a standstill, dropping down on ropes from a stadium roof before unfurling a banner critical of the Russian oil giant Gazprom. Still more activists scaled the Shard in central London, western Europe’s largest building, to object to Shell’s oil exploration at the top of the world. The rapid succession of audacious protests used by Greenpeace to dominate newspaper headlines and television bulletins has been the starkest sign of a renewed vigour coursing through the world’s largest independent, direct action environmental organisation.
Independent 6th Oct 2013 read more »
A BRITISH journalist who is facing up to 15 years in a Russian prison for piracy had told his girlfriend days before he was charged that he expected to be home within 10 days. In her first interview since Kieron Bryan was charged, along with 28 Greenpeace activists and a photographer, Nancy Thorburn said none of them had expected anything more than a slap on the wrist. The decision by a Russian court to charge all 30 with piracy has sparked outrage from Greenpeace supporters and governments around the world.
Times 6th Oct 2013 read more »
