It was The Lady Herself who believed that all could be left to the market, and that making things - a.k.a. manufacturing - could be left to countries in the Far East.

With the possible exception of the commodification of water, her most egregious decision was the privatisation of energy supplies.

The market failure has been spectacular, leaving the UK faced with a growing "energy gap" in which elderly coal-fired and nuclear plants will close around 2015 because of obsolescence, and a much-touted nuclear future will come on stream around 2020.

The Energy Review of 2003 proposed relying on renewable sources of supply, but led to little action, since governments must leave delivery to the "free markets", free, presumably, to choose not to invest in renewables, since the "invisible hand" is, by definition, free to chose not to follow government's wishes.

By the time of the 2007 review nuclear was back in vogue, but it took a further two years before France's state-owned EDF agreed to buyout British Energy and thus build the new generation of nuclear power stations.

Four years later the country is no further forward, with 'market forces' demanding a rigged market before committing to start construction.

To cap it all, the coalition has ducked an energy review which both parties called for when in opposition.  [14]

The Severn Barrage brings into sharp focus the conflict of interests.

It could generate 8.6 gigawatts of zero-carbon electricity - 5 per cent of the UK's electricity needs - but it ...

... would permanently flood nearly 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres) of internationally protected wetlands. It would also destroy some of Britain's most important fisheries in the Severn, Wye and Usk catchment areas ... [GDN]

From the (New Labour) government's point of view, there's only one scheme on offer, the one condemned by the Environment Agency. However, there is a second scheme, which is more eco-friendly, which seems not have been properly considered.

Friends of the Earth proposed a scheme based on a series of lagoons, rather than a barrage, and claimed this would offer more power, at lower cost, occupy less space, and would not disrupt the estuary's wildlife.

However, New Labour's infatuation with corporate 'solutions' looks to be playing a key role in decision making.

The mention of 'government consultants' in The Guardian's report sets the expectation - duly fulfilled - that FOE's more eco-friendly proposal is the subject of, er, "miscalculations" by its corporate opponents.  [GDN]

Given New Labour's incestuous relationships with the nuclear industry, this approach to policy formulation should not surprise us, since, behind these consideration lies the larger canvas: efforts to decarbonise energy supplies are predicated on the assumption that the global economy can then resume growth as usual.

Power politics: French threat to UK energy

Six years ago today Tony Blair figuratively pushed Britain's nuclear button. Pre-empting the outcome of his review into the country's future energy needs, he announced that to "keep the lights on" and prevent global warming the Government was backing the creation of the first new generation of nuclear power stations in a decade.

If we don't do this now, he said, "we will be committing a serious dereliction of our duty to the future of this country" ...

Coal and gas mean carbon emissions which we are legally obliged to reduce, renewables can't yet fill the gap and ultimately we have to keep on the lights ...

Ind  16 May 2012

Who's going to pay to update Britain's infrastructure?

Traffic to grow by 'nearly 50%' ... jobs to grow by 'nearly 50%' ... supply of electricity to grow by 'nearly 50%' ... oil supplies to decline ... We had a prequel in the 1970s - I still have the petrol coupons that were issued, but never needed - but next time, since the switch to the electric/hydrogen car is rolling along at a snail's pace, they might well be needed. Most forecasts point in the direction of power cuts circa 2015, and the nuclear power stetions that have been touted since the 2007 energy review are still a matter of talk - mostly how the government will subsidise - oops, sorry - rig the carbon market to ensure EDF make a profit. Too many imponderables!

The problem facing the government over infrastructure is not whether we need it. From nuclear power stations to new runways in south-east England, there are compelling arguments for a multibillion pound spending programme that would span a decade. The issue is how to pay for it.

Not only will we need more roads in the years to come but the economic trajectory of motoring also points to the end of the current road taxation system.

The consequences of this are outlined in a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, commissioned by the RAC Foundation.

Revenue from motoring taxation will drop by £13bn a year by 2029 as fuel duty takings reduce thanks to growth in use of electric, hybrid and fuel-efficient cars.

This will leave the exchequer with a tax take from motoring of £25bn, compared with £38bn currently.

Over roughly the same period, traffic will grow by nearly 50% ...

Gdn  15 May 2012

Government faces £13bn black hole from fuel duty slump

Income from the two main taxes on motoring, fuel duty and vehicle excise duty, will fall from the current levels of 1.7pc and 0.4pc of GDP respectively, to 1.1pc and 0.1pc by 2029, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies today in its report Fuel for Thought, commissioned by the RAC Foundation ...

The report claims that future governments will face a "drought" in income from motorists and be forced to find new ways to tax them:

“The irony is that while ministers encourage us to buy greener, leaner cars, they are being forced to look at ways of clawing back the money motorists think they will be saving ...

Tel 

Fuel Price Could Rise By 50%, Warns RAC

Centrica threatens nuclear pull-out

Despite repeated assurances - as far back as 2006 - that there will be no subsidies for nuclear power, this report again confirms that the so-called private sector continues to demand market-rigging as a basis for building a new generation of such power stations.

In the case of this latest report, Centrica wants "assurances about the future price of nuclear-generated electricity", and they want such assurances "within months".    [FT]

Clearly there is no genuine stand-on-your-own-two-feet market in electricity, and certainly not one capable of replacing ageing coal-fire power stations after 2015, and the shut-down of existing nuclear plants after 2023 without considerable input from government, and/or, consumers.

Alternatives - solar power, tidal power, geothermal, and hydrogen - are off government's radar.

Shale gas will come - and like North Sea Oil - go, kicking the end of the addiction to fossil fuels further down the road not taken.

Carbon capture and storage is another tantalising cul-de-sac, despite much chatter since the-then energy minister - Malcolm Wicks - told The Scotsman ...

"I would like to see one or two major developments in Britain using British coal plus clean coal technology," he said. "My instinct is that it would be sensible for us to be producing more of our own energy, home-growing our own energy."

Some analysts predict coal is set to become world's most popular energy source, accounting for up to 40 per cent of global power generation.

"Whatever the most fierce environmentalists may say and wish, the world is going to be burning lots of carbon, particularly loads and loads of coal, for 100, 200 years to come. The environmentalists may not like that but tough, it's going to happen," Mr Wicks said.

James Kirkup, Political Editor, The Scotsman, 23 February 2006

The Scotsman's report has vanished from their website, but the BBC's report - Funds for greenhouse gas storage 14 June 2005 - confirms the line of travel, and - intriguingly - also mentions hydrogen.

Finally, like Malcolm Wicks, the coalition's energy circus has not factored in Peak Coal.

The use of thorium technology to provide electricty - and the power necessary to extract hydrogen as by-product - seems to offer the least worst hope of a providing energy when renewables need backup, which they will until every house has both thermal and PV fitted.

Currently, it's politically utopian: the corporate energy cartel wouldn't like it.

FT  20 Apr 2012

The Question of Thorium

Thorium was dismissed by the Ecologist's Eifion Rees which invited this riposte from blogger quokkaZ

Policy misgivings muddy nuclear’s future

The Ecologist: Energy

China is leading the way with thorium

How long until the lights go out?

Hydrogen Economy

Nuclear waste treatment technologies

Nuclear alchemy

Transmutation

Thorium fuel cycle

Has the 'greenest government ever' gassed itself?

Clearly, the coalition are looking to shale gas and ccs to bail them out on co2 reduction targets.

The question being asked in ['green'] circles now is whether Saturday's announcement on gas-fired power stations means that climate policy has effectively "gone" ...

One of the [Committee on Climate Change's] central recommendations is that the electricity sector should aim to "virtually decarbonise" by 2030 ...

It's a goal that the prime minister said last year he "basically endorsed", telling MPs: "If we don't decarbonise electricity we've got no hope of meeting all the targets that we are all committed to." ...

Recent research has ... cast doubt on the widespread belief that if coal-fired plants close and are replaced by gas, the climate wins.

Gas produces roughly half as much carbon dioxide as coal when burned.

However, coal-burning also emits tiny dust particles, aerosols, which have a cooling effect.

Taking this into account, and the short-term nature of aerosols versus the long lifetime of CO2, US researchers showed that a global switch from coal to gas would indeed restrain temperature rise - but not until after 2050.

And that is if none of the gas leaks from pipelines - which it does.

Natural gas - methane - is itself a potent greenhouse gas; and with a likely leakage rate taken into account, the US research team showed, it would take more than 100 years for a coal-to-gas switch to curb the rate of global warming ...

BBC NEWS  19 Apr 2012

Carbon capture 'viable with long-term support'

The government recently announced a £1bn fund to help carbon capture and storage (CCS) develop; but the report says wider support is needed ...

"CCS is seen as the key to many scenarios of how to mitigate climate change, whether that's the UK meeting its targets on cutting emissions or global targets that keep warming below 2C," said the report's lead author Dr Jim Watson, director of the energy research group at Sussex University.

"But unlike other low-carbon technologies, CCS doesn't exist at the commercial scale. We don't know when they will be technically proven at full scale, and whether costs will be competitive with other low-carbon options.

"So it is vital that the government's commitment leads to several full-scale CCS projects as soon as possible; only through such learning by doing will we know whether it is a serious option for the future." ...

BBC NEWS  19 Apr 2012

New UK attempt to capture carbon

DECC

Switching from coal to natural gas would do little for global climate

Green and growth? Can’t we have both?

Osborne adviser urges stronger eco push

Green Alliance

UK in talks with Iceland over 'volcanic power link'

Any cable link between the UK and Iceland would be the longest of its kind in the world, at up to 932 miles ... environmental groups say interconnectors are more cost-effective than building new plants ...

BBC NEWS  12 Apr 2012

Iceland's volcanoes may power UK

Geothermal energy

Energy firms to 'guarantee best deal' on tariffs

Competition: we hear a great deal about 'choice' in the NHS, but banking and energy cartels are OK.

Under the deal, British Gas, E.On, NPower, Scottish and Southern Energy, EDF and Scottish Power will contact their customers once a year to tell them what the best tariff is for them, and how to get it ...

BBC NEWS  11 Apr 2012

Fracking contamination downplayed

Charles "Chip" Groat, associate director of Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, led the study.

"The bottom line conclusion of our study is that in the states we investigated, we found no evidence that hydraulic fracturing itself, the practice of fracturing the rocks, had contaminated shallow groundwater," he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting ...

Their review of the data indicated that many problems ascribed to hydraulic fracturing were actually related to processes common to all oil and gas drilling operations.

Such problems included casing failures and poor cement jobs that allowed fluids near the surface to break out of the well to pollute groundwater.

Above-ground spills or the mishandling of wastewater were also cited as causes.

This had to be addressed through tight regulation and enforcement, said Dr Groat ...

Ind  17 Feb 2012

Big firms' £15bn bonanza as cold and fuel poverty bite

The Big Six energy firms are set to announce bumper profits of £15bn in the next few weeks.

The figures for 2011 will be £2bn higher than the previous year's profits, according to forecasts from financial analysts ...

The (Independent's) campaign is calling for the introduction of a windfall tax on energy firms' profits and to use the cash raised to make homes energy efficient to reduce fuel poverty ...

Ind  11 Feb 2012

43% of people worried they can't afford next fuel bill

Older people suffering under 'poorly publicised' fuel poverty scheme

One in four face fuel poverty

NEA

Green Deal could hit UK climate change targets

Fuel poverty affects a quarter of UK's households as bills soar and pay freezes

Fuel poverty

Fuel Poverty

End energy profiteering: The rich get richer, the poor get colder

An estimated 3,000 winter deaths are caused every year by fuel poverty and as the winter chill really begins to hit home, with more snow and icy weather forecast for the next few days, it could be the worst time for the vulnerable, particularly the elderly ...

The increases have more people than ever slipping into fuel poverty – when their gas and electricity costs account for at least a tenth of their income.

According to research from uSwitch, £1,500 a year on energy is the tipping point at which three-quarters of households will start rationing their energy, three-fifths will go without adequate heating and more than a third will be forced to turn their heating off entirely.

That figure looks like edging ever closer as further energy increases seem highly likely, especially after wholesale gas prices reached a six-year high earlier this week.

Meanwhile, in October the regulator Ofgem revealed that energy suppliers had increased their profit margins by a whopping 733 per cent, from £15 to £125 per household ...

Ind  10 Feb 2012

Fair Energy?

Does the housing strategy focus enough on energy efficiency?

Baroness Maddock understates matters; as the recent C4 News report confirms, the government has washed it's hands of household insulation, all in the bogus interests of 'choice'. Given constant predictions - over several years - that 'the lights will go out' sometime around 2015, the current government is astonishingly complacent.

The House of Lords debated the government's housing strategy on Thursday, where Baroness Maddock admitted she was "a bit disappointed" that there is not more in the government's strategy on energy efficiency and sustainability.

The strategy states is that all new homes will meet the Zero Carbon Homes standard from 2016 and promises a review of building regulations to improve energy efficiency and carbon emission standards for new buildings ...

Gdn  23 Jan 2012

Green Deal

George Osborne slams 'costly' green policies

How long until the lights go out?

UK 'subsidising nuclear power unlawfully'

The complaint, by the Energy Fair group, also says that the UK's carbon floor price and feed-in tarriffs amount to state aid for the nuclear industry.

State coffers would also have to meet cost overruns on nuclear waste disposal, they argue.

Dorte Fouquet of the German legal firm BBH, who drew up the complaint, said that EU energy policy was based on having an open market with a level playing field.

"The commission has repeatedly underlined that distortion of the market is to a large extent caused by subsidies to the incumbents in the energy sector," she said.

"This complaint aims to shed some light on the recent shift in the energy policy of the United Kingdom where strong signals point to yet another set of subsidies to the nuclear power plant operators." ...

BBC NEWS  20 Jan 2012

New nuclear has 'lots of support' locally - EDF Energy

UK breaks promise on nuclear power subsidies

Energy Fair

Green Deal could hit UK climate change targets

You can still get insulation, but it's no longer free! Instead it will go on your monthly bill.

The Green Deal is meant to be at the heart of the government's stated ambition to be "the greenest government ever".

It is meant to deliver large cuts in carbon emissions.

But the government's own figures show that it will instead lead to a dramatic fall in the number of British homes which are being lagged or insulated to make them more energy efficient.

About a million homes a year are currently being insulated under a government arrangement that make energy providers pay for most of the work.

The result is vastly reduced utility bills for homeowners and significant reductions in carbon emissions from our old and leaky housing stock.

But all of that is about to change.

The Department for Energy and Climate change's figures show that they expect their new plans to reduce the take up of loft insulation by 93 per cent.

That's not a typo; it really is 93 per cent.

They also predict that the numbers installing cavity wall insulation will plummet by 67 per cent ...

C4 News  17 Jan 2012

UK taxpayers face extra £250m bill for nuclear waste clean-up

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority does an 'HMRC' ...

NDA income for 2012-13 is shown dropping from £867m to £717m, while expenditure is expected to rise from £2.88bn to £2.96bn, leaving the government needing to increase its total grant to the organisation, which oversees the dismantling of the UK's atomic legacy.

A spokesman for the NDA said the figures should not surprise ministers.

"We have been spelling out to government every step of the way and there is no question of any slowdown of our programme," he added.

The figures for the current financial year were flattered by a £157m one-off sale of land near Wylfa, on Anglesey, but the NDA has also been affected by the Japanese decision to announce the end to its future nuclear programme following the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

This in turn persuaded the NDA to shut down the Sellafield mixed-oxide reprocessing plant (SMP) in Cumbria, with the loss of contracts worth £78m a year.

The NDA declined to say how much the SMP plant had cost to run, citing commercial confidentiality ...

Gdn  25 Dec 2011

Nuclear waste

Mox plant U-turn by coalition stuns anti-nuclear campaigners

The obsession with plutonium goes on ...

The government has astonished the anti-nuclear lobby by outlining plans to spend £3bn of public money building a new mixed-oxide fuel (Mox) plant – months after announcing the closure of a similar facility that lost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds ...

Energy minister Charles Hendry said ... the government had gathered enough information to be confident Mox was the right direction and was now "preferred policy" ...

Douglas Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK ... said:

"This is crazynomics – the reality is that the nuclear fairytale is a nuclear nightmare.

Having announced the closure of a Mox plant because it was colossally inefficient and because there was no market for its service, the government now wants to build another one that will fast become a hugely expensive white elephant.

"This proposal will lead to a subsidised plant creating subsidised fuel so that subsidised operators can produce subsidised electricity and then receive subsidised waste disposal.

"The only winners in this are the nuclear operators, already rich with their 18% domestic fuel price rises this year." ...

Gdn  01 Dec 2011

Fuel poverty affects a quarter of UK's households as bills soar and pay freezes

Previous government projections forecast that this year would see 4.1m households in fuel poverty, which is defined as those who have to spend 10% or more of their income to achieve adequate warmth and light.

But these estimates were calculated before the huge prices rises announced last summer by the big six energy suppliers.

New calculations, provided to the statutory consumer body Consumer Focus ... based on actual bills, show the figure for England alone is now over 5m households.

The revelation comes as figures show that average families now face the worst squeeze on incomes since records began in the 1950s.

In its analysis of George Osborne's autumn statement, the influential Institute of Fiscal Studies said median income families would be worse off in 2015 than they were in 2002, pinpointing the relentless rise in fuel prices as one of the main factors, along with stagnating wages and government welfare cuts ...

Gdn  01 Dec 2011

UK's faith in nuclear power threatens renewables

Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Environmental Protection Agency in Germany, who advises the German government, said:

" ... it is obvious that nuclear plants are too inflexible and cannot sufficiently respond to variations in wind or solar generation, only gas [power stations] do." ...

A new poll published on Friday suggests that globally, just 22% of people agree that "nuclear power is relatively safe and an important source of electricity".

However, the Globescan poll of 23,231 people in 23 countries showed that support in the UK actually rose from 33% to 37% since 2005.

That chimes with a British Science Association-commissioned poll published in September showing UK support for nuclear power has remained steady since Fukushima.

It found 41% of respondents agreed that the benefits of nuclear power outweighed the risks, up to 38% in 2010 from 32% in 2005 ...

Gdn  28 Nov 2011

UK urged to go for nuclear power

In a letter to the Chancellor, Sir William McAlpine, chairman of the pressure group Supporters of Nuclear Energy (SONE) describes the present energy policy as an imposition on consumers and industry and as failing in its objectives ...

"We find this difficult to understand when the Government is wrestling with massive debts and the need for growth and is privy to the facts about electricity supply costs.

"The sheer disparity between the cost of other sources - and especially offshore wind - and nuclear is startling when nuclear can reasonably be claimed to provide security of low carbon supply at affordable cost.

"We suggest this shows that reform of energy policy has a long way to go before it is in a position to achieve its declared objective ...

Ind  27 Nov 2011

UK 'complacent' on nuclear future

On extending nuclear plans to meet 2050 climate targets, chairman of the committee, Lord Krebs, said "there isn't a credible Plan A".

"It is though we're setting off on a long journey without a map, without a driver, and without anyone to fix the car if things go wrong," he told reporters at a briefing in London.

"We are in danger of placing ourselves in a position where we will be unable to ensure a safe and secure supply of nuclear energy up to 2050 ... the government's nuclear energy policy simply lacks credibility." ...

The committee says there is a serious danger of UK expertise being lost by this period, with the skilled workforce ageing and a lack of investment in training new people.

Lord Krebs suggested that the government, regulatory agencies and industry would find it hard to recruit trained and skilled Britons.

And relying on other countries to provide a talent pool was not a sensible strategy ...

BBC NEWS  22 Nov 2011

Longannet carbon capture project cancelled

A pioneering £1bn state-funded carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at the Longannet power station in Fife has been cancelled, as the government announced that "a decision has been made not to proceed with Longannet but to pursue other projects with the £1bn funding made available by the government."

Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that Longannet, the only remaining project in the government's competition for CCS funding was on the brink of collapse because Scottish Power and its partners, Shell and the National Grid, were concerned about its commercial viability without more public backing ...

Government and industry have been fighting over the financing of the Longannet project for weeks.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) pledged £1bn, but the developers believed £1.5bn from the state was required ...

Gdn  19 Oct 2011

CCS

Climate change 'grave threat' to security and health

The imperative to 'localise now' is underscored

Scientific studies suggest that the most severe climate impacts will fall on the relatively poor countries of the tropics.

UK military experts pointed out that much of the world's trade moves through such regions, with North America, Western Europe and China among the societies heavily dependent on oil and other imports.

Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti, climate and energy security envoy for the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), said that conflict in such areas could make it more difficult and expensive to obtain goods on which countries such as Britain rely.

"If there are risks to the trade routes and other areas, then it's food, it's energy," he told BBC News.

"The price of energy will go up - for us, it's [the price of] petrol at the pumps - and goods made in southeast Asia, a lot of which we import."

BBC NEWS  17 Oct 2011

Fossil fuel energy bills to soar

According to the [Friends of the Earth] report, electricity bills rose by 30 per cent between 2000 and 2010, while gas bills rose 78 per cent.

The rises were largely due to increased costs of coal, which rose by 71 per cent, and natural gas, which rose 90 per cent, in the decade ...

Ind  17 Oct 2011

Global carbon emissions reach record

Peak Coal

Gas prices will continue to rise, industry bosses warn

Dave's latest "do less make it seem like more" initiative falls flatter than Pancake Tuesday

Phil Bentley, the managing director of British Gas, said ... that the “inconvenient truth” is that energy prices will continue to rise.

“In my opinion unit prices will only go one way unless someone discovers huge amounts of gas and imports it into the UK.

"The international price for gas, I am afraid, is going up,” he told the BBC ...

Tel  17 Oct 2011    

Huhne calls for consumers to switch energy suppliers

David Cameron to demand energy companies cut household bills

Government sets out plans to tackle rising energy costs

Nuclear power a costly failure

Mr Huhne has bought into the wrong model: the future's Thorium, Chris

Britain is still paying for nuclear-generated electricity consumed a generation ago because of the hidden costs of an industry reared on the expectation of public subsidies, the Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said yesterday.

He told the Royal Society in London that the nuclear industry and the Government should show that they have learned from their past mistakes if they are to retain public support for a renaissance in nuclear power ...

Ind  14 Oct 2011

Peak uranium

Safe nuclear does exist, and China is leading the way with thorium

Thorium

Thorium fuel cycle

Ofgem vs the energy companies: an entertaining distraction

On the failure of the 'invisible hand' ... but don't tell the public

The politicians ... won't admit that they are essentially powerless to stop energy bills rising over the long-term.

The £200bn or so required to renew the UK's energy infrastructure has to be found from somewhere.

And, in the case of nuclear, the government will end up giving some firm-ish guarantees to the private sector since the City's instinct is to run away from a model that requires ten years of up-front spending before 30 years of healthy cashflows arrive.

So, while Chris Huhne and Ed Miliband talk about oligopolies and rigged markets, we have yet to see radical proposals brought forward to overhaul the structure of the industry.

Even SSE's move to sell all its generation into the day-ahead market has been dismissed as insufficient by small energy retailers -- it's the six-month and year-ahead markets they're interested in.

That's the backdrop for today's squabble ...

Gdn  14 Oct 2011

China eyes shale gas and uranium firms

China's growing attempts to seize global natural resources has reached Britain with a link to the recent shale discoveries near Blackpool and a bid for a London-listed uranium company.

Close ties have emerged between China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and a backer of Cuadrilla Resources, the exploration group that claimed last month there were trillions of cubic metres of shale gas under Lancashire.

The Beijing-to-Blackpool link was revealed after the Hong Kong-based Kerogen Capital came to the rescue of one of the largest shareholders in Cuadrilla.

Kerogen and CNOOC are behind a new $1.5bn (£1bn) fund, which is looking at investing in new resource projects.

Kerogen, set up by former JP Morgan bankers Ivor Orchard and Jason Cheng, has taken a 15% stake in AJ Lucas – an Australian engineering business that holds about 40% of Cuadrilla.

Lucas has been struggling to raise new cash and needed to inject $10m in Cuadrilla to maintain its stake in a business that is also 40% owned by Riverstone – a private equity firm in which former BP boss, Lord Browne, is a key player.

Chinese companies have already bought into shale gas companies in the US, where a welter of discoveries has sent the price of natural gas plummeting.

Cuadrilla made headlines when it claimed that two exploratory wells in the Bowland shale of Lancashire indicated huge reserves of 5.6tn cubic metres of shale gas ...

Gdn  09 Oct 2011

Huhne will use Fukushima report to revive nuclear programme

Plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations date back to the Blair energy review of 2007, which was a u-turn from the conclusions of the 2003 energy review, which concluded that a new generation of nuclear power stations would not be commissioned

Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, is scheduled to release the final report by Mike Weightman, chief inspector for nuclear installations, into what lessons should be learned from the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan ...

An upbeat message from Huhne will be aimed at countering a series of setbacks in the energy sector as deteriorating financial conditions encourage companies to pull back from nuclear and threaten to abandon carbon capture and storage (CCS) programmes.

He will also want to convince critics that his Tory coalition partners are not trying to undermine the low-carbon agenda by arguing Britain can no longer afford it.

Greenpeace is already pursuing a judicial review for alleged insufficient lack of consultation on nuclear power, and has been further antagonised by a perceived lack of transparency over submissions made to Weightman.

Anti-nuclear protesters are infuriated that EDF, the French state-owned energy company at the heart of the UK's new nuclear plans, has started preparatory work on a facility at Hinkley Point in Kent ahead of the report's publication ...

Obs  09 Oct 2011

Nuclear industry presses sceptical Huhne over backing new reactors

... the coalition agreement with the Conservatives involved a new pledge to allow nuclear stations to be built with a proviso that they do not involve public subsidies.

Huhne has already followed this up with a commitment to make companies pay for all their clean-up costs after a nuclear accident.

Currently, the industry only pays the first £140m, with the government picking up the rest of the bill, which Huhne believes amounts to a public subsidy ...

The economics of nuclear power have already been hit by low gas prices and a weak pound, which makes it more expensive for UK-based companies such as Centrica to import reactor parts.

The government has also promised to introduce a minimum carbon price to help make nuclear economic, which the Liberal Democrats support. But the industry will want it to be at least €50 a tonne, compared with current prices of about €15.

Firms are also concerned that Whitehall cost-cutting could result in the programme to decommission existing reactors, which is funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), being slashed ...

Guardian  19 May 2010

RWE reviews involvement in UK nuclear programme

Labour's love-in with the nuclear industry still blossoming

Lib Dem MPs set to rebel against nuclear power 'subsidy'

Nuclear power may become less attractive option

Government names eight new sites for nuclear power plants

Exercising Britain's nuclear options

Who will pay the bill for closing Britain's £200bn energy gap?

EDF ran secret lobbying campaign to reduce nuclear waste disposal levy

10 new nuclear power stations named

Scottish and Southern Energy abandons nuclear plans for wind

Is no one in the UK's energy industries is up-to-speed on Thorium?

The utility company will sell its 25pc stake in the NuGen consortium to its partners GDF Suez and Iberdrola.

NuGen is only at the very preliminary stages of an investment in nuclear, having bought an option to purchase land near Sellafield for £19.5m two years ago.

It would not have a fully completed power station for at least a decade ...

Alistair Phillips-Davies, generation and supply director, said "our core investment in generation should be in renewable energy".

Tel  23 Sept 2011    

China is leading the way with thorium

China enters race to develop nuclear energy from thorium

Thorium nuclear power

Green groups angered as biomass plant approved

The Union of Concerned Scientists seek to differentiate ...

" ... between beneficial biomass resources and those that are questionable or harmful ... "   YPTE

A differentiation which seems not to have occurred to the coalition!

Charles Hendry, the energy minister, said the 300MW power station on the coast of Anglesey would provide a "secure, flexible and renewable source of power" while creating hundreds of jobs.

The Holyhead biomass facility would help Britain meet its renewable energy targets ...

"It is widely assumed that bioenergy is inherently carbon-neutral. However this assumption is flawed," said the scientific committee of the European Environment Agency in the report seen by Reuters ...

A second recent report undertaken by the RSPB wildlife group estimated that almost 40 new biomass schemes were in various stages of planning in the UK alone, with an explosion of similar projects expected all over the world.

It is not just green groups who oppose the bioenergy drive.

The wood timber industry says prices have already shot up by 50% over the past three years as energy companies seek out new supplies for their biomass plants.

The industry say timber factories in Britain are now threatened by closure ...

Gdn  16 Sept 2011

Biomass is a versatile energy source. Organic matter that is used as a source of biomass energy includes trees, timber waste, wood chips, corn, rice hulls, peanut shells, sugar cane, grass cuttings, leaves, manure, sewage, and municipal solid waste.   YPTE

... like all our energy sources, biopower has environmental risks that need to be mitigated. If not managed carefully, biomass for energy can be harvested at unsustainable rates, damage ecosystems, produce harmful air pollution, consume large amounts of water, and produce net greenhouse emissions ...   UoCS

The Energy Crisis of 1593

Renewable Energy: Biomass Energy

Biomass

Biomass and bioenergy

Lack of infrastructure investment could leave Britain in the dark

The Invisible Hand has failed again, Mr Cridland

Britain faces a very real chance that the lights could go out in the next five to 10 years, as its ailing energy infrastructure struggles to attract the massive investment needed to ensure a reliable electricity supply, according to a warning by the CBI.

Companies named the potential absence of a secure, affordable energy supply as their biggest concern ...

The report also finds that the UK's road and rail systems are falling further behind the EU average, while 58 per cent of respondents said that, overall, the country's infrastructure is more expensive, less reliable and inferior to that of the Continent.

It notes a clear deterioration in many aspects of Britain's infrastructure in the past five years, with potentially serious consequences for the economy.

The CBI's director general, John Cridland, said the task of revitalising Britain's infrastructure fell to the private sector, since it was vital to keep the country's AAA credit rating by cutting the public deficit.

He urged the Government to think creatively about ways to unlock the billions of pounds held on companies' balance sheets to kick start a much-needed infrastructure financing revolution ...

Ind  09 Sept 2011

CBI says Britain's ageing road and rail networks are damaging investment

German Solar Firms Eclipsed by Chinese Rivals

If Germany has lost out to China, what chance for Britain?

Companies like Suntech and Yingli now dominate the world market for photovoltaics.

The Chinese already generate close to half of global sales and almost 60 percent of profits in the industry ...

Eight companies from China and Taiwan are on the top-10 list of the fastest-growing players in the industry.

There are no longer any German companies on the list ...

This means that the Chinese competition is now more likely to benefit from the billions in feed-in tariffs in Germany than domestic producers ...

According to the Rhenish-Westphalian Institute for Economic Research, the average German household pays about €123 a year to subsidize green electricity.

The generous subsidies are a prime example of how the German policy of promoting green energy is pushing things in the wrong direction.

Photovoltaics is by far the most expensive and most inefficient method of energy production.

It consumes billions, and yet it produces just 2 percent of Germany's energy requirements.

A program to promote electricity conservation would be at least as productive, and much cheaper to boot -- but it makes less of an impact than the production of shiny solar collectors ...

The Chinese also benefit from government support in their advance on markets in Europe and North America.

But China doesn't promote the industry via consumers -- it helps the companies directly ...

State-owned banks then help the wind turbine producers advance into export markets ...

Der Spiegel  07 Sept 2011

A Third Solar Company Files for Bankruptcy

Closure of Mox plant leaves nuclear waste headache for Cumbria

The troubled Sellafield Mox Plant was built in the 1990s and designed to handle foreign, mainly Japanese, plutonium dioxide that had been recycled from spent fuel by the Thorp plant at Sellafield.

It was awarded an operating licence in 2001 after receiving what was supposed to be firm commitments from Japanese power companies.

Only one Japanese power company, Chubu Electric, signed a firm contract but it soon emerged there were serious technical problems in the Sellafield Mox Plant's production line.

Instead of producing up to 120 tonnes of Mox fuel a year, the plant was only managing a tiny fraction of that target.

An investigation by outside consultants in 2006 found the plant was dogged by about 6,000 minor equipment failures over two months, equal to 37,000 failures a year.

During a minor failure the entire production line would be halted for 15 minutes to an hour, while in a major failure the line would stand idle for several days.

A deal last year with Chubu meant the Japanese would pay for a huge upgrade of the entire plant, which would now be unable to fulfill its first Japanese order until the end of the decade.

But the Fukushima nuclear disaster threw the market for Mox fuel in turmoil, leading to the closure of the Mox plant at Sellafield and posing a big question over what to do with a growing plutonium waste mountain.

Ind  04 Aug 2011

Centrica blames fuel efficiency for profit slide at British Gas

Centrica blamed warm weather, rising wholesale prices, bigger taxes and its customers' increasing energy efficiency as its British Gas subsidiary reported a 54 per cent dive in first-half profits.

The group said its 9 million residential customers used 18 per cent less gas and 3 per cent less electricity in the first half, as unseasonably warm April weather combined with a growing trend among its customers to become greener and more cost-conscious ...

Ind  29 July 2011

Higher bills pay for electricity market reform

The White Paper will propose four key areas of reform: a carbon price floor, an emissions performance standard, contracts for difference and a capacity mechanism.

The carbon price floor was introduced in this year's Budget, whereby an amount is charged for every tonne of carbon produced, encouraging companies to switch to lower-emitting technologies ...

The emissions performance standard puts a limit on the amount of carbon any new plants would be allowed to produce.

This is likely to be set at 450g per tonne ... less than coal plants produce.

A Whitehall source said this and other policies would mean electricity companies will phase out coal within the next two or three years.

Contracts for difference would be used to stabilise electricity prices.

If the price is above a certain index, companies would give the excess profit to a central agency. If it is below, the companies would receive extra money ...

"The precise levels [of the index] won't be in the White Paper," said an industry source.

"And the levels will have to vary for the range of different technologies and how their cost will be different."

The final element is the capacity mechanism, whereby a minimum amount of electricity would always be available to the market to avoid widespread blackouts.

A centralised body would buy up electricity, to allow for any potential shortfalls. This could then be tendered out to utilities ...

Ind  10 July 2011

Lib Dem MPs set to rebel against nuclear power 'subsidy'

A large group of Lib Dems are concerned about clause 78 of the bill ... that asks them to support a carbon floor price.

This mechanism penalises fossil fuels but not low-carbon energy sources, such as nuclear and renewables, and the MPs believe it hands a large financial windfall to nuclear power – effectively a subsidy.

The government has admitted that because of the size of the nuclear industry, it stands to gain up to twice as much as renewables from the proposed carbon floor price.

In a written reply, the Treasury economic secretary, Justine Greening, said:

"The existing nuclear sector is likely to benefit by an average of £50m per annum to 2030 due to higher wholesale electricity prices.

"Similarly, the renewable energy sector is expected to benefit by an average of at least £25m a year to 2030." ...

Gdn  01 July 2011

Call for Chris Huhne to resign over Fukushima emails

Families face nuclear tax on power bills

Don't believe the spin on thorium

quokkaZ
24 June 2011

@Eifion Rees

an experimental 10MW LFTR did run for five years during the 1960s at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US, though using uranium and plutonium as fuel

Just one example of the shocking mishmash of nonsense and untruths in this awful article. No a Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactor did not run ever at Oak Ridge. A uranium fueled molten salt reactor ran at Oak Ridge. There are many possible designs for molten salt reactors and LFTR is but one (promising) design.

Playing fast and loose with terminology is a sure indication that the author is not interested in presenting an informative and accurate piece, but rather a low grade political polemic.

Even if thorium technology does progress to the point where it might be commercially viable, it will face the same problems as conventional nuclear: it is not renewable or sustainable and cannot effectively connect to smart grids. The technology is not tried and tested, and none of the main players is interested. Thorium reactors are no more than a distraction.

More totally baseless nonsense.

1. There is more than enough Thorium available to sustain a civilization with any conceivable level of energy use for many, many thousands of years. By definition this is "sustainable". This is not conjecture. This is a physical fact and an easily verifiable physical fact. Anybody professing to be an "energy expert" who maintains otherwise is not telling the truth. Realizing the potential of the Thorium energy resource is an engineering problem, just as as realizing the potential of the solar energy resource is an engineering problem.

2. And just why cannot a thorium fueled power plant connect to a "smart grid"? More totally unsubstantiated drivel. For that matter why can't a modern Generation III+ nuclear power plant such as an EPR connect to a smart grid? An EPR can load follow at least as well as coal fired generator. So if an EPR cannot connect to a "smart grid", coal cannot either. In that case we have one monumental problem of ever transitioning to "smarter grids".

3. In just what way is Thorium a distraction? Has any build of any low emission electricity generation anywhere in the world ever been deferred awaiting availability of Thorium reactors? The answer is of course no. Has it in any way, shape or form ever influenced any decision on the construction of new electricity generation capacity. Err.... no.

We collectively face two enormous problems - dangerous climate change and potential energy poverty due to depletion of fossil fuels. The sheer arrogance of those who would close off extremely promising lines of energy research and development, based on nothing other than their faith and assurances that renewables can alone supplant fossil fuels is breathtaking. The pillars of any such renewables deployment must be solar and wind. I would remind these overly opinionated individuals that solar and wind constitute less than 3% of electricity generation world wide and no more than about 1% of world energy production.

With such relatively tiny deployment of solar and wind, it is simply laughable to assert any proof exists that renewables alone are up to the task. Attempts to close off other promising technologies for sustainable low emission energy production are sheer stupidity on a historically unprecedented scale. One thing should be blinding obvious from the very slow (almost non-existent) progress on the climate/energy problem is that it is exceedingly difficult and by far the most likely outcome is that all sustainable, low emissions technologies will be needed.

Gdn  23 June 2011

In search of a coherent energy policy

On the gross failure of the 'invisible hand'

That question is this: as Britain's ageing power stations near the end of their operating lives, how do we ensure that the lights do not go out while also keeping the pledges we have made about cutting carbon emissions?

When Ofgem posed that question in February 2010, it said there was a limited window of opportunity in which there was time to act.

Some 16 months later, Britain has yet to agree an energy policy for the next decade and beyond and the window will soon close....

Ind  23 June 2011

Britain at risk of power cuts from aging networks

Energy firms must invest £200bn to meet UK targets

How long till the lights go out?

Energy White Paper 2003

Energy White paper 2007

Britain as vulnerable to energy price shocks as Uganda

All the reports below are from 2008, and there's more here

"Although energy infrastructure is well maintained in the UK, high fuel prices at the pump and relatively high imports of both fossil fuels and electricity leave the UK vulnerable to disruption of their energy supply," Maplecroft found.

"The UK became a net importer of natural gas and oil in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

"And the UK lags behind other European countries in its adoption of renewables as an energy source." ...

Tel  02 June 2011

Britain 'faces rising risk of power shortages'

Britain 'faces power cuts threat'

UK renewables policy 'inadequate'

'Drastic' reforms on energy urged

'A policy of running on empty '

Britain's growing energy crisis

We must end our oil dependency

Mind the Gap

UK breaks promise on nuclear power subsidies

MPs have urged ministers to admit they are tacitly subsidising nuclear power despite promising that the industry would not receive such support.

The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee's report accused ministers of disguising the subsidy ...

BBC NEWS  16 May 2011

Coalition 'losing way' on green policies

The soaring cost of making sure the lights don't go out

Furthermore Britain is now entirely dependent on foreign firms to 'make sure the lights don't go out'.

... And here's the really bad news: irrespective of what happens to wholesale energy prices over the years ahead, your bills are going to get even more expensive as Britain strives to meet its climate-change targets ...

Ind  10 May 2011

Soaring tax bill leads Centrica to cut back on UK investment

Fuel poverty statistics

Kirklees Warm Zone

Cameron for "green coal"

Tories plan 'energy revolution'

The Government needs to firm up its energy policy to support solar

There are two issues at stake here. The broader point is that when governments ask private sector energy companies to make long-term investments – in renewables or fossil fuels – on the understanding that the relevant tax regimes will be supportive for a time, if they go back on the commitment, they should not be surprised when people say they are not prepared to continue investing ...

Ind  03 May 2011

UK marine energy sector 'could be worth £76bn and support 68,000 jobs'

Eco labels 'mislead consumers'

Japan's power crunch will be felt globally

The energy gap widens

... the disaster engulfing the Fukushima power station could change the global energy landscape ...

As Japan faces rolling power blackouts, LNG tankers are already being rerouted to Japanese ports.

In the LNG spot market tankers set sail but can be quickly diverted if a buyer slaps down a higher bid for the cargo – and the price is up about 6% since the earthquake struck, the highest level since 2008.

That is bad news for the UK, which relied on gas for about a third of its power supply over the past winter.

But this could be a long-term shift in demand ...

In the short term it means more reliance on carbon-producing fossil fuels: renewables cannot fill the gap ...

Guardian  14 Mar 2011

Disaster will drive gas prices higher

Fukushima Nuclear Accident

Nuclear power: After the flood

Nuclear crisis forces up UK gas prices

Germany suspends power station extension plans

Urgent steps needed to wean UK onto other energy sources

The energy secretary, Chris Huhne, told the Observer that the UK had no option but to speed up efforts to move away from oil.

"Getting off the oil hook is made all the more urgent by the crisis in the Middle East. We cannot afford to go on relying on such a volatile source of energy when we can have clean, green and secure energy from low-carbon sources," he said.

"The carbon plan is about ensuring that the whole of government is engaged in a joined-up effort to lead us into a low-carbon world."

The transport secretary, Philip Hammond, who has infuriated green groups by floating the idea of raising the motorway speed limit from 70mph to 80mph, will be told he must produce a nationwide strategy to promote installation of infrastructure for electric cars by June.

It is also expected that new deadlines will be set for building low-carbon homes, and that a firm starting date of September 2012 will be established for a new "green investment bank" to become fully operational.

The Carbon Plan will be launched this week by David Cameron, his deputy Nick Clegg and Huhne.

In a tacit admission that ministers have failed so far to live up to their claim to be part of the "greenest government ever", the prime minister will, in effect, make their job security dependent on "green achievement" by demanding that those whose departments fall short of environmental targets write to him with a full explanation of what went wrong ...

Guardian  05 Mar 2011

Gloomy Malthus provides food for thought ...

We must end our oil dependency, says chancellor

World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected

Labour's carbon targets amount to a cop-out

Our only hope lies in forging a new energy world order

Dick Cheney on Peak Oil

Urgent steps needed to wean UK onto other energy sources

UK facing 1970s-style oil shock ... Huhne

Thursday's keynote speech ... is an attempt to galvanise public support for tough measures to create a green economy, after recent setbacks including attacks on the science of climate change and stalled international negotiations ...

Drawing on research conducted for the previous government by Lord Stern, Huhne argued that a $100 a barrel price is the exact point at which the economics of climate change pivot so that it becomes cheaper for British consumers and businesses to invest in green technology than remain with the status quo ...

This is the moment to invest in green infrastructure, homes and transport, according to Huhne.

Fossil fuels are now the costly, high-risk option for energy: it is "crazy" not to prepare for a low-carbon future ...

But he warned that in the low-carbon economy, we will turn to electricity to heat our homes and charge our cars, leading to a doubling in demand for electricity by 2050.

This week, Steve Holliday, the chief executive of the National Grid, said he predicts the UK will need to increase its installed capacity of electricity generation from 75GW to 100GW by 2030 ...

SteB1
3 March 2011 3:52PM

Yes the oil prices and the vulnerability of oil supply should teach us a very important lesson about the need for a green economy. However, all this was very clear over 35 years ago. The need to re-evaluate our whole economy and our reliance on oil was crystal clear then. It is no accident that the much loved British sitcom "The Good Life", which ran 1975-78 had a theme of self-sufficiency - the very bedrock of proper green economies. This was a hot public topic at the time.

What we need to understand is why the hell we forgot about this lesson for the last 35 years. Why we went full steam ahead with an oil based economy and forgot about all the lessons we learned in the 1970s. After all the same lynchpin was involved in both. The regime in Saudi Arabia is the lynchpin that holds the whole world economy together. Imagine if there was a popular uprising in Saudi as there has been in other Middle Eastern countries. Imagine what that would do to world oil supplies and prices. We are far more reliant on that oil supply than we were 35 years ago.

Why are we so much in denial? Why did we forget all the things that became apparent in the 1970s? The situation never changed. We only forgot about these problems because the oil flowed freely again and the price was low. However, the essential problem was still there. We are a culture deeply in denial.

Guardian  03 Mar 2011

2011 is 'pivotal' year for UK energy market

Oil nears $120 a barrel on Libya and Middle East fears

Solar industry steps up calls for feed-in tariff U-turn

U.S. Gulf Crudes Strengthen as WTI-to-Brent Spread Widens

World Economy Can Survive Oil Price Surge ... IMF

Break-even for low-carbon economy is $100 a barrel oil

UK government launches £5,000 electric car grant scheme

Energy firms must invest £200bn to meet UK targets

UK 'will struggle' to meet 2020 renewables goal

Chancellor promises to cut emissions by 34% by 2020

EU could meet carbon targets more cheaply with gas than renewables

The Guardian has obtained a copy of an unpublished report by consultancy McKinsey, commissioned by the European Gas Advocacy Forum ...

The report ... describes gas as a clean, plentiful and relatively cheap form of energy.

It challenges the idea that renewable forms of energy should be the primary way to cut emissions.

... the McKinsey analysis suggested the same carbon emissions reductions could be achieved with far less renewable generation – significantly less than half the total energy mix.

It argued that the emissions reductions could be made by using less coal-fired generation, which is twice as carbon intensive as gas, and three times as much gas generation ...

The McKinsey report also said Europe's own largely undeveloped shale gas resources could meet the continent's needs for 30 years based on current demand ...

Guardian  13 Feb 2011

Fuel billing system 'leading to deaths'

The system for calculating most domestic fuel bills in the UK is contributing to thousands of deaths each winter, public health experts say.

The UK Public Health Association says two-tier tariffs - where the first units cost more - penalise the poorest.

It wants the "iniquitous" price system changed so cheaper units come first ...

Every year the cold weather brings illness and death. Across the UK each winter there are, on average, more than 30,000 fatalities caused by low temperatures ...

UK Public Health Association chairman Professor John Ashton says winter death rates are much higher in Britain than in Scandinavia and should be a matter of shame.

"What's happening in a lot of these houses is that you'll have an elderly person, perhaps a widow on their own on a low pension, struggling to keep the house warm," he said.

"She'll keep one room warm and then at bedtime she'll go up to her bedroom which is cold. She'll get chilled, and then she'll get a chest infection, go on to get pneumonia and that's it."

Domestic fuel costs have risen sharply in recent years, but Prof Ashton says the problem is compounded by the two-tier tariff used by most energy companies, with a high initial unit cost which falls when more energy is used ...

BBC NEWS  11 Feb 2011

Charities call for all terminally ill patients to be given £130 energy rebate

Britain's terminally ill should receive a new cash rebate brought in by energy companies for "vulnerable" customers because many cannot afford their fuel bills, ministers are being urged.

Leading health charities and doctors want all those dying of conditions such as cancer, heart problems, Aids and motor neurone disease to qualify automatically for a £130 annual discount.

They often have high gas and electricity bills because they are forced to stay at home during treatment, and most struggle to find the money because they are jobless ...

Cold can exacerbate the difficulties already being faced by people with certain illnesses.

In a survey, 77% of health professionals said they had seen patients suffering from pain that had been worsened by feeling cold.

People undergoing some forms of chemotherapy are more likely to feel cold.

But 20% of cancer sufferers turn off their heating during the winter, despite feeling cold, to save money.

"It's a scandal that terminally ill cancer patients and other people at the end of life are suffering and getting even more ill because of cold," said Mike Hobday of Macmillan Cancer Support.

"It's surely a mark of a civilised society that we can keep such people comfortably warm in the last years of life." ...

Guardian  02 Jan 2011