News July 2019

Hinkley

31st July 2019

French energy giant EDF has this week said Hinkley Point C remains on schedule despite its flagship nuclear power project in France being further delayed by at least three years. The company, which is building the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station near Burnham-On-Sea, says the launch of its nuclear reactor at Flamanville in Normandy has been pushed back due to problems with weldings. The Flamanville reactor was initially due to be operational by 2012, featuring a European Pressurised Reactor, but has had repeated setbacks over the years.

Burnham-on-sea.com 30th July 2019 read more »

Punchline Gloucester 30th July 2019 read more »

Olkiluoto

31st July 2019

TEOLLISUUDEN VOIMA (TVO) has revealed it has received an updated schedule for the start-up of Olkiluoto 3, the third plant unit at Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Eurajoki, Finland, from Areva-Siemens. According to the new schedule, the unit is currently expected to commence regular electricity production six months behind the previous schedule, in July 2020.

Helsinki Times 19th July 2019 read more »

Sizewell

31st July 2019

County council chiefs are to write again to Government to voice their concern over the number of massive energy projects planned for a small area of east Suffolk. The decision follows a high-level meeting with community leaders from across the area over their ongoing worries over the proposals for Sizewell C. Officials said the group of 86 representatives from 28 town and parish councils remained unconvinced over EDF Energy’s plans for the new twin reactor nuclear power station, particularly whether it will provide a long lasting legacy for the socio-economic benefit of the area, and its impact on wildlife and flood risk. The meeting to discuss the Stage 4 consultation was held by members of Sizewell C Joint Local Authorities Group (JLAG). JLAG chairman Richard Smith said: “These local leaders are all very well informed and knowledgeable surrounding EDF Energy’s proposals having been through 3 stages of consultation so far. As expected, there was a lot of strong feeling within the room and it was important for us to hear the concerns of the community as we consider a joint response to the Stage 4 consultation from Suffolk County Council and East Suffolk Council.

East Anglian Daily Times 30th July 2019 read more »

Lillyhall

31st July 2019

BOSSES at a nuclear laundry operating on a Workington industrial estate have formally lodged an application in a bid to bring it into line with planning rules. Allerdale council had launched an investigation into the Energy Coast Laundry site at Lillyhall following a complaint from environmental pressure group Radiation Free Lakeland. A subsequent inspection of the site by planning officers revealed that original permission for general industrial use had indeed been changed.

Carlisle News and Star 30th July 2019 read more »

Energy Policy

31st July 2019

GMB, the energy union, has responded to a leaked Government report that the UK needs up to a dozen more nuclear power stations to meet decarbonisation targets. Up to 40 gigawatts of non-intermittent low carbon power stations could be needed in 2050 to reduce Britain’s emissions to “net zero” ministers believe, and the proposed “regulated asset base” (RAB) model would see consumers pay for the plants on their bills during construction.

GMB 30th July 2019 read more »

Governments have completely failed to make progress in tackling the planetary emergency, and a climate revolution is the sole hope that they will do so. This sounds like a sound bite from Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who is inspiring schoolchildren worldwide to go on strike, or a slogan from Extinction Rebellion, which has been disrupting city life in the UK and elsewhere to secure an urgent government response to the climate emergency. Both campaigns might agree with the statement, but it is in fact from a scholarly book, Burning Up, A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption, a detailed study into the burning of fossil fuels since 1950. It looks at fuel consumption in individual countries but also at the political forces that have driven and still drive the ever-growing inferno of fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas, across the world. The book illustrates the reasons behind the rather frightening fact that since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, despite many promises and warnings, governments have failed to take decisive action on climate change and in fact have made it decidedly worse by continuing to subsidise fossil fuels more than renewables.

Climate News Network 31st July 2019 read more »

Energy Policy – Scotland

31st July 2019

It has been three months since the First Minister declared a climate emergency at a packed SNP conference. Reinforcing the Scottish Government’s commitment to decarbonise Scotland’s economy, the First Minister declared that “if the advice says we can go further or go faster, we will do so”. Less than a week later, the Committee on Climate Change made that exact recommendation; calling for Scotland to reach net-zero by 2045, with the rest of the UK following in 2050. With a widespread programme of reform already under way within the Scottish Government, one policy in particular could have significant financial implications for homeowners: the current target for all of Scotland’s homes to achieve an EPC rating of at least band C by 2040. The Scottish Government, with support from opposition parties, is consulting on accelerating this target, a bold ambition that Kingspan supports. Whilst the emphasis to date has rightly been on households in fuel poverty, owner-occupied homes account for 61 per cent of domestic housing in Scotland, an area of the market which requires policy interventions to support Scotland’s transition towards a more energy-efficient housing stock. At the extreme, such a policy could prevent homeowners from being able to sell their property until they have installed enough measures to bring the EPC rating up to band C – potentially costing thousands of pounds. However, there are a mix of policy approaches that could be taken by the Scottish Government to help drive the uptake of energy efficiency measures, a large number of which pay for themselves over time through reduced heating bills and increased property values. The biggest energy efficiency improvements come from the harder-to-implement technologies such as solid wall insulation. Understanding the gains from this type of intervention, the Scottish Government has already made funding for solid wall insulation available, but to date these have only been for those in fuel poverty. Expanding this financial support to the owner-occupied sector could allow households, especially in rural areas, to achieve significant improvements in energy efficiency and help the government meet its admirable targets. Where possible, any government intervention should support a whole-house approach to retrofitting, ensuring that quality is at the forefront of improvements.

Herald 31st July 2019 read more »

Centrica

31st July 2019

Shares in Britain’s biggest energy supplier fell by almost a fifth yesterday after it cut its dividend, revealed a sharp drop in profits and announced the departure of Iain Conn as chief executive. Mr Conn said that he had “agreed with the board” of Centrica, the owner of British Gas, that he would go after next year’s annual meeting, but that the company’s strategy was unchanged. Yesterday Mr Conn said that he remained convinced in his strategy to focus Centrica on its customer-facing business and that the board agreed. He said that the company now planned to make £1 billion of annual cost savings by 2022, on top of £1 billion already delivered, with the intention to make it the cheapest supplier in the market. He confirmed there would be “material job impacts” and that it would incur £1.25 billion in restructuring charges. Justin Bowden, national secretary of the GMB union, said: “You cannot just cut your way out of crisis. More of the same — more job cuts on top of the thousands already gone and going — are panic measures, not a credible plan for recovery. There must be a pause under a new CEO, investment and a new plan for growth.” Yesterday’s results were affected by outages at nuclear plants, warm weather and low wholesale gas prices. Mr Conn said that it had been an “exceptionally challenging” first half.

Times 31st July 2019 read more »

Centrica, the owner of energy supply giant British Gas, is to quit oil and gas production and switch its chief executive, as it struggles to maintain its share price and refocus its business on low carbon opportunities. Iain Conn announced today he would step down as chief executive and retire next year, after the firm reported a statutory pre-tax loss of £446m for the first six months of the year. The interim dividend for shareholders was cut in half in response, to 1.5 pence per share.

Business Green 30th July 2019 read more »

BBC 30th July 2019 read more »

Conn’s strategy given cold shoulder by Centrica investors. However, the shareholder exodus has not just been driven by a series of weak results or even the near-60 per cent dividend cut, but by a strategy that has left investors pondering just where growth is going to come from.

FT 31st July 2019 read more »

British Gas owner Centrica revealed a further £1bn cost-cutting push as it slashed its dividend, pledged to sell its energy production business and parted ways with chief executive Iain Conn. Mr Conn, who joined from BP as chief executive in January 2015, denied that he was pushed out by the board after overseeing a share price decline of almost two-thirds as the company haemorrhaged customers and slashed about 10,000 jobs on his watch. “It wasn’t that the board suggested and I agreed. We agreed together,” he said, adding that it was a “natural time” for him to depart. The company said it expected him to stay on at least until next year’s annual shareholder meeting to oversee a change in strategy while a successor is identified.

Telegraph 30th July 2019 read more »

SMRs

31st July 2019

Advanced Nuclear Technologies (otherwise known as small nuclear or small reactor technologies) encompass a wide range of nuclear reactor technologies under development. The technologies share common attributes: smaller than conventional nuclear power station reactors; designed so that much of the plant can be fabricated in a factory environment and transported to site, reducing construction risk and making them less capital-intensive. Generally advanced nuclear technologies fall into one of 2 groups: Generation III water-cooled Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), similar to existing nuclear power station reactors but on a smaller scale; Generation IV and beyond Advanced Modular Reactors (AMRs), which use novel cooling systems or fuels to offer new functionality (such as industrial process heat) and potentially a step change reduction in costs. There is a large variety of potential technologies within these groups which span technology types from conventional water-cooled reactors, to Generation IV reactors using novel fuels and coolants, as well as fusion reactor concepts. Given this breadth, government believes that “SMR”, as commonly understood, is too narrow a description for technologies coming forward after the current generation of nuclear power stations. Instead government considers this to be the “Advanced Nuclear” market.

BEIS 25th July 2019 read more »

The Urenco-led U-Battery consortium has completed the first stage of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ (CNL) invitation to site a first-of-a-kind small modular reactor (SMR) at the Chalk River site. It is the fourth reactor design to do so.

World Nuclear News 30th July 2019 read more »

Nuclear Power

31st July 2019

Commentators from Greenpeace to the World Bank agree that climate change is an emergency, threatening civilization and life on our planet. Any solution must involve the control of greenhouse gas emissions by phasing out fossil fuels and switching to alternative technologies that do not impair the human habitat while providing the energy we require to function as a species. This sobering reality has led some prominent observers to re-embrace nuclear energy. Advocates declare it clean, efficient, economical, and safe. In actuality it is none of these. It is expensive and poses grave dangers to our physical and psychological well-being. According to the US Energy Information Agency, the average nuclear power generating cost is about $100 per megawatt-hour. Compare this with $50 per megawatt-hour for solar and $30 to $40 per megawatt-hour for onshore wind. The financial group Lazard recently said that renewable energy costs are now “at or below the marginal cost of conventional generation” — that is, fossil fuels — and much lower than nuclear.

Common Dreams 30th July 2019 read more »

France

31st July 2019

The French nuclear model collapses and leads us to disaster. The collapse of the French nuclear model becomes obvious for everyone except for the nuclear lobby, supported by the state, whose voluntarism is inversely proportional to the success of its companies. The collapse, because that’s what it’s about, the French nuclear modelbecomes obvious for all of our citizens – except for the nuclear lobby, supported by the state apparatus that it controls in part, whose voluntarism is inversely proportional to the success of its companies. Failure to immediately organize the change of course, by programming the exit of the nuclear for 2040, the inevitable exit will still take place but with colossal financial and social costs hoping that will not be added to it a nuclear catastrophe which would come to destroy part of the Hexagon and all of its industrial apparatus starting with tourism, agriculture and viticulture to name only what seems most obvious.

Huffington Post 30th July 2019 read more »

Hinkley

Olkiluoto

Sizewell

Lillyhall

Energy Policy

Energy Policy – Scotland

Centrica

SMRs

Nuclear Power

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