Sellafield
NUCLEAR waste released from the Cumbrian reprocessing site has made fish and shellfish caught off the Dumfriesshire coast radioactive. Nuclear waste released from the Cumbrian reprocessing site has made fish and shellfish caught off the Dumfriesshire coast slightly radioactive. And fish-fans in Dumfriesshire have the highest exposure to nuclear radiation of anyone north of the Border. Despite Sellafield nuclear station being situated 80 miles away, the new report reveals that the nuclear power station is still having an impact on Scotland.
Daily Record 7th Jan 2015 read more »
Moorside
Anti-nuclear protesters have called a West Cumbria site the “biggest crime scene of 2014″. Dozens of campaigners held a New Years Eve vigil just outside Moorside to represent the 5,500 strong petition against development. National Grid plans to create a so-called ring of pylons to take power both north and south from a proposed new nuclear power satin in Moorside, Sellafield, to join the national grid near Carilisle. Marianne Birkby, of Radiation Free Lakeland said: “we walked the five minute walk from the centre of the pretty village of Beckermet to the biggest crime scene of the year – the outer boundary of Moorside in wind, mist and rain with our soggy banners.”
Radiation Free Lakeland 7th Jan 2015 read more »
New Reactor Types
Today, the United States Department of Energy announced that its Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee is partnering with Canadian nuclear company Terrestrial Energy Inc. (TEI) to assist with TEI’s new Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). The engineering blueprint stage for this GenIV reactor should be reached in two years. The reactor should come online in less than ten.
Forbes 7th Jan 2015 read more »
Supply Chain
A nuclear expert has warned South West supply companies that quality and health and safety must come first if they are going to make the most of the £60bn nuclear new build and decommissioning opportunity.
Western Morning News 7th Jan 2015 read more »
Iran
Major world powers and Iran will hold fresh talks on Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme in Geneva on January 18 as they try to meet an end-June deadline for a deal, the European Union announced Wednesday.
EU Business 7th Jan 2015 read more »
Denmark
Denmark has been long been a pioneer in wind power, having installed its first turbines in the mid-1970s when oil shocks sent the import-dependent nation on a quest for energy security. Thirty-seven years later, the country has set a new world record for wind production by getting 39.1 percent of its overall electricity from wind in 2014. This puts the Northern European nation well on track to meet its 2020 goal of getting 50 percent of its power from renewables.
Climate Progress 7th Jan 2015 read more »
Germany
Renewables were the biggest contributor to Germany’s electricity supply last year, according to data that underline the dramatic shift towards clean energy in Europe’s largest economy. Nearly 26 per cent of Germany’s power generation came from renewable sources in 2014, according to figures compiled by Agora Energiewende, a Berlin think-tank, up from just over 24 per cent in 2013. Electricity output from renewables has grown eightfold in Germany since 1990. However, the data also show that Germany remained heavily reliant on lignite, the dirtiest fossil fuel, which accounted for 25.6 per cent of the country’s electricity generation last year. The share of power generated from lignite rose slightly from 25.4 per cent in 2013.
FT 7th Jan 2015 read more »
Community Wind
Social Investment Scotland, which recently announced its funding of the UK’s largest community-owned commercial-scale wind farm, Beinn Ghrideag in the Western Isles – has put its weight behind renewable energy as a mechanism for social change. It is expected that over the course of 25 year life span, it will return £20 million to community projects across the Western Isles.
Scottish Energy News 8th Jan 2015 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Everyone knows that energy efficiency results in saving energy, but evidence points to an array of wider benefits. The term “multiple benefits” has emerged to describe the additional value that emerges with any energy performance improvement. The benefits that occur onsite can be especially meaningful to manufacturing, commercial, and institutional facilities. Energy efficiency’s positive ripple effects include increased productivity and product quality, system reliability, and more. Business leaders take note: the bonus value of energy efficiency’s multiple benefits amplifies the return on energy efficiency investments.
ACEEE 6th Jan 2015 read more »
Fossil Fuels
New research is first to identify which reserves must not be burned to keep global temperature rise under 2C, including over 90% of US and Australian coal and almost all Canadian tar sands.
Guardian 7th Jan 2015 read more »
The Infrastructure Act, if passed – and so far it is scarcely being contested (hello Labour, do you still exist?) – will be the Climate Change Act’s evil twin. Both acts oblige current and future governments to report at fixed periods on how they will achieve their contradictory objectives. The same person, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, will be responsible for both policies: ensuring that the UK both consumes less oil and produces more. Perhaps he’ll seek to minimise climate change by day, then, after a stiff dose of potion, come out at night to maximise it.
Guardian 7th Jan 2015 read more »
This interactive map reveals which nations’ stock exchanges are most exposed to the ‘carbon bubble’ – the theory that oil, coal and gas reserves held by fossil fuel companies are massively overvalued since climate change policy will make these reserves impossible to exploit and therefore ultimately worthless.
Guardian 7th Jan 2015 read more »
Fracking would be prohibited on the land that collects the nation’s drinking water, under a Labour proposal published on Wednesday. The party also wants to reverse the government’s decision to stop shale gas companies having to notify residents individually of fracking in their area.
Guardian 7th Jan 2015 read more »
