Nuclear Subsidies
Nuclear power projects in Europe face a legally uncertain future after Brussels heeded German concerns and ditched plans to issue specific guidelines on permitted state subsidies. In a blow to the UK, France and countries in central and eastern Europe eyeing new nuclear programmes, the European Commission decided informally on Tuesday to carry on investigating programmes on a case-by-case basis. This puts Britain in the uneasy position of acting as a test case for EU public subsidy rules on the next generation of nuclear plants when it seeks clearance from Brussels in the coming months. The UK is offering various support mechanisms, including a guaranteed price for nuclear power and a financing “guarantee”, to entice the private sector into building a series of nuclear reactors.
FT 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Britain’s plans to use public money to subsidise a new generation of nuclear power suffered a setback on Tuesday when EU policy-makers decided to exclude atomic electricity from a list of funding guidelines.An early draft raised expectations the Commission was preparing to sanction public support for nuclear power and whipped up a storm of protest, especially in the biggest EU economy Germany.
Reuters 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Greenpeace EU legal strategist Andrea Carta said:“Reason prevailed yesterday since the Commission signalled that new nuclear energy should not receive state support. Creating a framework for subsidies to new nuclear plants would have meant encouraging investments in an already mature technology that cannot deliver energy without passing enormous costs and risks onto European citizens and the environment. We are glad that a large number of Commissioners opposed this absurd notion.”
Greenpeace 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Energy Supplies
Panto season has come early to the Daily Mirror’s front page. The UK’s energy infrastructure is in such a state that this winter will see a return to ” blackout Britain”, it declares today – receiving a firm “oh no it won’t” from the grid operator in response. So is it time to start stockpiling candles? Probably not. National Grid is confident the tools are in place to keep the lights well and truly on this winter.
Carbon Brief 8th Oct 2013 read more »
We know, of course that the proposal by Ed Miliband last month to freeze energy prices was greeted immediately with a chorus of ‘blackout Britain’, and here we are again today with the response to National Grid’s ‘Winter Outlook 2013 report. The report, which is produced ahead of every winter, sets out in sober form the prospects for gas and electricity supply over the coming winter months. It’s a reasonable read – gas storage a little up from last year; electricity demand continues to decrease; no major planned generation outages; 3.8gw of interconnector capacity available this winter: some concern about the long term effect of tightening margins if proposed plant investment does not take place. National Grid, therefore is according to Chris Train (Director of Markets at National Grid), ‘confident …that consumers will continue to receive the energy they need reliably efficiently and safely’.
Alan Whitehead MP 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
Two narratives about energy (especially electricity) and the UK versus the rest of Europe commonly do the rounds in the British energy debate. One (typically promoted by ministers across the coalition) is that, apparently due to our superior market-led policies, we have much cheaper energy than the rest of Europe. The other, often promoted by energy-intensive industries and most recently by George Osborne last weekend, is that ‘green’ taxes and levies are being piled on to energy costs, threatening to make us uncompetitive with our European neighbours. The evidence does not particularly support either view.
IGov 8th Oct 2013 read more »
The UK head of leading German solar EPC firm Belectric has disputed suggestions by energy minister Greg Barker that solar energy is still more expensive than nuclear. Speaking at Solar Energy UK this morning, Barker said that despite the dramatic fall in the costs of solar PV in recent years, the technology was still more expensive than nuclear, other renewables such as onshore wind, and fossil fuels. But in an address at SEUK after the minster, Toddington Harper, chief executive of Belectric’s UK arm, challenged the minister’s assertion.
Solar Portal 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Vincent de Rivaz says tax and green levies have pushed up electricity bills and Labour’s plan to split energy firms would just add to costs. The head of EDF Energy hit back at Labour’s call for a radical reform of the industry today by insisting tax and green levies were to blame for a quarter of the sharp rise in electricity bills over the past decade. Vincent de Rivaz, EDF chief, insisted that rising wholesale costs only accounted for a half of the near doubling in household electricity charges. A quarter of the increase was down to the cost of investing in transmission and distribution while the remaining quarter was solely down to “the Government, for VAT and for measures to promote energy efficiency, address fuel poverty and support low carbon generation”. Mr De Rivaz said: “The increases have not, I repeat, been driven by higher margins.”
Telegraph 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Politics
Ed Miliband’s new election chief works for a company that has advised some of Britain’s biggest energy suppliers on how to manage their image. The Labour leader, who has made a battle with the “Big Six” a defining test of his leadership, announced that he had hired Spencer Livermore yesterday. Mr Livermore is a director of strategy at Blue Rubicon, a communications agency. On its website the agency boasts of its ability to “turn round the reputations” of big corporations. Among clients listed are British Gas and Centrica.
Times 9th Oct 2013 read more »
Wylfa
The planned shut down of Britain’s oldest nuclear reactor may be extended by 15 months after its owners applied to keep it open until the end of 2015. The 42-year-old Wylfa reactor 1 on Anglesey was expected to stop producing power in 2014 but it could now continue until the following December. Magnox Limited has submitted a document to the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) proposing to prolong operations. The ONR said it would respond to the proposal.
BBC 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Urenco
A deal for the UK’s share in the uranium powerhouse may reap £3bn. But some fear our secrets may fall into the wrong hands. Abdul Qadeer Khan does not enjoy the extra security that has been imposed on him by Pakistan’s defence ministry, which is worried about another Osama bin Laden-style raid on its territory. “It is like death that comes uninvited,” Dr Khan has said of the battery of 120 AK rifle-bearing security personnel who stand at his side. But that’s the price of smuggling the nuclear secrets that gave Pakistan the bomb. Time magazine described him as “the merchant of menace,” though Dr Khan now disowns an admission in 2004 that his network sent nuclear weapons technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.In the 1970s, Dr Khan worked for Urenco, the British, Dutch and German uranium enrichment group, until he fled to Pakistan with top-secret blueprints. The Urenco sale is raising fears that without public-sector safeguards more nuclear secrets could end up with rogue states.
Independent 9th Oct 2013 read more »
Uranium
Nuclear power plant operators benefited from a slump in uranium prices after the reactor meltdowns in the Fukushima No. 1 plant. Areva SA, the second-biggest producer of the metal, says that’s about to end. Power utilities need to boost orders of uranium by 2015 or face potentially soaring prices as new atomic plants come on line in addition to any reactors reactivated in Japan, Olivier Wantz, who heads Areva’s mining division, said in an interview.
Japan Times 7th Oct 2013 read more »
Chernobyl
A CHARITY dedicated to providing an annual four-week respite holiday for children severely affected by a nuclear disaster is appealing for help to support the visits. The Friends of Chernobyl’s Children said an open evening at Northallerton Town Hall, had been successful in attracting new families to host about 12 children and two interpreters from Belarus next summer, but it would need more support for its fundraising activities.
Darlington & Stockton Times 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Turkey
Turkey’s first nuclear power plant is likely to be delayed by at least a year, a source close to the plans said on Tuesday, as bureaucratic hurdles hamper the $20 billion project.Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has been an advocate of the country’s ambitious nuclear program, meant to help reduce its dependence on costly hydrocarbon imports by providing 10 percent of its electricity needs by 2023.But its first planned 4,800 megawatt (MW) plant, being built by Russia’s Rosatom, is already falling behind schedule, with the first reactor unlikely to be operational by 2019 as planned.
Reuters 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Japan
Fukushima Crisis Update 4th to 7th Oct. TEPCO’s Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which is designed to remove many (but not all) radioactive nuclides from water used to cool the crippled Fukushima reactors, shut down again this week after an alarm sounded, just the latest in a series of mechanical difficulties for the system.
Greenpeace 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Fukushima worker accidentally switches off the crippled nuclear plant’s cooling systems in latest blunder.
Daily Mail 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Iran
There is a new willingness to settle the Iranian nuclear question. But success depends on absorbing lessons from the years of failed efforts. Fortunately, nearly all are being addressed.
Guardian 8th Oct 2013 read more »
North Korea
South Korea’s spy agency has confirmed that the North has rekindled its Yongbyon reactor deactivated since 2007. The National Intelligence Service reported that the five Megawatt graphite moderated reactor has restarted operations.
IB Times 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Submarines
THE Ministry of Defence has sought to calm fears after it was revealed that a nuclear ring lost power for an hour and a half. As reported in The Herald yesterday, the device, which is used to ensure nuclear reactors in submarines remain cool, lost electrical power due to a central switchboard fault last year.
Plymouth Herald 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Renewables
Will somebody tell the Lib Dems that the Tories have ALREADY cut renewable subsidies. Liberal Democrat ministers are anxious to say that they will stop Tory plans to cut renewable energy subsidies, but this is undermined by the fact that the premium prices paid for renewable energy have already been sharply reduced as a result of Electricity Market Reform (EMR). According to the Lib Dems the Tories cannot cut the rates payable to wind power and other renewables because they are being set in law under the EMR legislation and regulations. Well, that makes much less difference than it seems. The Lib Dem claims ignore the fact that the rates payable for wind and solar power are being slashed by large amounts under the EMR settlement – that is compared to what is paid (currently, and until 2017) under the Renewables Obligation (RO).
Dave Toke’s Blog 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Britain’s path to renewable energy has never been easy, littered as it is with failed government schemes and broken promises. Now there is a new threat to the roll-out of solar panels — loose-bowelled, clam-loving seagulls. They are a blot on the landscape for Foresight Group, an infrastructure investment business that is planning to raise £200 million on AIM this month to spend on solar farms, including the one that it owns in Aylesford, Kent.
Times 9th Oct 2013 read more »
More than 2,000 solar farms could be built by 2020 under a government plan to subsidise an eight-fold increase in solar power. Many of the farms will be built on open countryside despite a pledge from ministers to focus on installing panels on factory rooftops, former industrial sites and abandoned airfields. A “solar roadmap” published yesterday by the Department of Energy and Climate Change proposes to increase solar power over the next seven years from 2.4GW to 20GW, which would generate enough electricity to power six million homes. While the roadmap calls on developers to show “greater sensitivity” to the impact on the landscape, the document makes clear that Britain must “grasp solar photo voltaic’s full potential” and take advantage of a halving in the cost of installing panels in the past three years. Almost 300 solar farms have been built to date and more than 300 are scheduled to be built over the coming year, according to solar industry figures.
Times 9th Oct 2013 read more »
PV Roadmap.
DECC 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
A cross-party committee of MPs has delivered the strongest blow yet to the green deal, the government’s flagship programme for energy efficiency, calling it “unattractive and uncompetitive”. The latest figures for the green deal – formally launched in January after several delays – show that only 384 households have yet signed up for improvements, out of more than 71,000 households that received assessments under the scheme. The green deal is aimed at encouraging people to install loft, cavity and solid wall insulation, which would reduce energy bills and the heat leaking from the UK’s draughty homes. But so far the main beneficiaries have been middle-class households receiving free subsidies for new boilers. At current rates, critics have pointed out, it could take 160 years for all of the UK’s housing to benefit.
Guardian 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Climate
Allowing the Earth’s temperature to rise by more than 2ºC will see dramatic changes in vegetation across the planet and expose a billion more people to severe water scarcity, according to new research. So vast are the potential changes that the scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany comment that they doubt if humans have the capacity to manage the impacts it will have.
Climate News Network 8th Oct 2013 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s evidence to House of Lords Committee points to significant potential for UK shale gas, but at a cost 50% to 100% higher than in the US. Evidence submitted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee shows that investment in UK shale may provide a valuable new source of natural gas as UK Continental Shelf production declines – but it will not be a panacea for bringing down gas and electricity bills.
Bloomberg 2nd Oct 2013 read more »
A shale gas boom in the UK would create more than 100,000 jobs but the industry will take ten years to get going, according to new research. Poyry Management Consulting said that the shale gas industry would eventually employ between 40,000 and 60,000 people and a “much larger” number of indirect jobs for workers in the supply chain and service sector. The figures, based on research by Poyry, is the most bullish estimate yet. It eclipses a report in summer from the Institute of Directors, which was financed by Cuadrilla, the shale gas producer, which estimated that the industry would create up to 74,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Times 9th Oct 2013 read more »
Fusion
Researchers at a California lab have got one step closer in achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion. If successfully harnessed, fusion – the process which powers the sun – could become an unlimited, and crucially, cheap source of energy.
Independent 8th Oct 2013 read more »
For years nuclear fusion has eluded scientists, yet very recently the researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US have managed to pass a milestone that brings fully sustainable nuclear fusion closer realisation. The NIF, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, uses 192 beams of the world’s most powerful lasers to deliver a pulse of energy 1000 times the capacity of the entire generating capacity of all power plants in the US combined. The pulse hits a tiny capsule of hydrogen which is then instantly compressed and heated up, creating a small nuclear fusion reaction.
Oil Prices 8th Oct 2013 read more »
