Britain has hit a 34-day coal-burning streak, using the polluting fossil fuel to top-up its electricity supply every day from June 25th to July 28th. The Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) warns of the danger of falling into a “fossil fuel trap” where there is not enough low carbon nuclear power to rely on in periods of low renewable generation, resulting in gas and coal being used instead. The NIA warns this will create more greenhouse gas emissions and higher energy prices, highlighting that the grid’s carbon intensity so far in 2021 is already higher than in 2020, marking the first year-on-year increase of this kind since 2012.

Energy Live News 30th July 2021 read more »

U.K. power prices have climbed so high that the cost of a new controversial nuclear plant, criticized for being too expensive, is now looking reasonable. Wholesale electricity prices have pushed above 100 pounds ($139) per megawatt-hour for the first time since 2008. That’s higher than the guaranteed rate the government agreed Electricite de France SA would get for the power produced from the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant being built in southwest England. The so-called strike price of 92.50 pounds set in 2013 was described by the National Audit Office as “high cost and risky in a changing energy marketplace.” The level was about double the wholesale market rate at the time. Power prices are surging amid the soaring cost of natural gas, with concerns over low stockpiles and the lack of additional supplies pushing U.K. prices to the highest since 2005. Elevated prices are likely to extend into winter when colder weather starts to increase demand, according to RBC Europe Ltd. Hinkley Point C isn’t due to come online until 2026 but the price guarantee for its power runs for 30 years. The mechanism, called contract-for-difference, is also used to subsidize offshore wind farms. By 2026, market rates are likely to be below the Hinkley Point strike price, according to Elchin Mammadov, analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “People complain about the cost of Hinkley being too high,” Mammadov said. “Paying a premium for building the first U.K. European Pressurized Reactor is justified as we would use that experience to lower the cost of future nuclear projects.” For Hinkley, the strike price in 2012 prices will be adjusted for inflation and will drop to 89.50 pounds if EDF takes a final investment decision on a second project at Sizewell on the southeast coast.

Bloomberg 30th July 2021 read more »

Householders have been warned to brace themselves for the biggest energy bills rise in a decade with more than half facing an increase of about £150 a year. The cost of gas and electricity is expected to soar as a result of the energy price cap being raised, which is due to be announced next week. Ofgem, the regulator, is preparing to allow suppliers to increase prices for 15 million households by as much as 13 per cent from October. It comes after a huge rise in wholesale costs. The price rise is particularly sensitive for the government as ministers grapple with how to fund Boris Johnson’s pledge to hit net-zero emissions by 2050. Officials have drawn up plans for a carbon reduction scheme that could push up gas bills by a further £170 a year. The plans, which are being considered before the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November, are intended to encourage people to move to hydrogen boilers and heat pumps in an attempt to reduce emissions. The prime minister is also considering giving people annual “green cheques” to offset the cost of higher gas bills, as the cabinet faces a backlash from Tory MPs over the impact on households.

Times 31st July 2021 read more »

Ed Miliband: Our biggest enemy is no longer climate denial but climate delay. Future generations will look back on the climate events of 2021 and say: “That was the year they ran out of excuses.” Heatwaves and flooding here in the UK, temperatures topping 50C in Pakistan, hundreds killed by a heatwave in British Columbia, deadly floods in Germany and China. All within a single month. Add to that the recent dire warning from the Met Office that the age of extreme weather has just begun. The most dangerous opponents of change are no longer the shrinking minority who deny the need for action, but the supposed supporters of change who refuse to act at the pace the science demands. As Bill McKibben, environmentalist and climate scholar, says on climate: “Winning slowly is the same as losing.”

Guardian 30th July 2021 read more »

Department for Transport increases active travel fund to £338m as it unveils plans to update road rules to enhance safety for cyclists and pedestrians. The government has topped up its active travel funding by £81m to build hundreds of miles of cycle lanes, strengthen protections for cyclists and pedestrians in the Highway Code, and roll out schemes that encourage walking, it announced this morning. The Department for Transport (DfT) said it had increased its cycling and walking budget to £338m today as part of its commitment to “build back greener” from the pandemic. The funding package marks a 30 per cent increase on the original £257m allocated for active travel in the 2021-2022 financial year, which the government had set out in the Spending Review in November 2020.

Business Green 30th July 2021 read more »

Owners of electric cars are being left unplugged because one of the country’s main home charger installers is struggling to keep up with demand. Customers of BP Pulse say it is failing to install chargers for months on end and is then unable to fix them quickly when they break. The company, which began as Chargemaster ten years ago and was bought by the oil giant BP in 2018, has installed about 50,000 home chargers and 8,000 public charging points, just over a third of the UK’s total.

Times 31st July 2021 read more »

Boris Johnson promised a big expansion of low-traffic neighbourhoods today despite criticism from some grassroots Conservatives. The prime minister criticised those who opposed the programme and said that “trying to squeeze more cars and delivery vans on the same roads” would lead to gridlock in towns and cities. Today a government report said that there was a gap between “real and perceived public opinion” on low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), roads where through traffic is blocked. Support for the schemes is more than twice as high as opposition, it said. The authors said that many claims about the schemes — including that they shift traffic on to surrounding streets, harm local businesses or increase emergency services response times — were simply “not true”. The report analysed 50 roads surrounding 12 LTN schemes and found that traffic was lower on 35 streets and higher on 15. The conclusions will be used by the government to support more schemes.

Times 30th July 2021 read more »

Preston to pioneer the future of nuclear power as new £2m pilot scheme is announced at Springfields. A £2m centre to unlock advances in nuclear power is set to open in Preston. An eight-month pilot for The Advanced Nuclear Skills and Innovation Campus will be based at a laboratory on the Springfields site in Salwick, where leaders from industry and academia – including the UCLan, the University of Manchester and the University of Sheffield – will collaborate.

Lancashire Post 29th July 2021 read more »

Households face paying an extra £200 per year to fund greenhouse gas removal technology, as industries pass on the cost of measures needed to reach net zero, a government commission has said. The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has recommended that the Government ramps up its support for greenhouse gas removal, which can suck carbon out of the air and reduce the UK’s contribution to climate change. However, the measures are expensive, and costs should be borne by industries that cannot easily decarbonise, such as air travel and the farming sector, the body has said. Those costs will then be passed on to consumers, which could result in a £200 bill per household per year by 2050. Households that use air travel and eat more food would pay more towards the levy on industry, with lower income households paying £80 per year and higher income households paying £400. The Commission said greenhouse gas removal devices were vital in helping the UK reach net zero emissions by 2050. The technology is carbon negative, because it does not contribute to emissions but removes carbon from the air by sucking carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon can also be captured by planting trees before burning them for bioenergy.

Telegraph 29th July 2021 read more »

Families will have to pay up to £400 more a year for food, goods and travel to allow polluting industries to suck carbon out of the air, the government’s infrastructure adviser says. Sectors with little chance of hitting net-zero emissions by 2050 will have to start covering the cost of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, according to the National Infrastructure Commission. It said in a report that taxpayers must spend up to £400 million over the next decade to help create an industry to store the gases if Britain is to meet its carbon pledge. But it added that from 2030 polluting industries such as aviation, agriculture and shipping should contribute £2 billion a year themselves, even if costs end up being passed on to consumers. The recommendation is likely to intensify opposition to Boris Johnson’s net-zero pledge from backbenchers, with Conservative MPs increasingly concerned that green commitments will push up bills for families.

Times 29th July 2021 read more »

National Infrastructure Commission urges government to act quickly to drive development of first wave of BECCS and DACS plants, arguing carbon removals will be a cornerstone of the UK’s future economy.

Business Green 29th July 2021 read more »

The UK government must commit to the wide-scale deployment of new greenhouse gas removal technologies by 2030 in order to meet its climate change obligations, according to a report by the National Infrastructure Commission. The report sets out how the engineered removal and storage of carbon dioxide offers the most realistic way to mitigate the final slice of emissions expected to remain by the 2040s from sources that don’t currently have a decarbonisation solution, like aviation and agriculture. Given the scale of removals likely to be needed, these technologies would represent a whole new infrastructure sector that could reach revenues matching that of the UK’s water sector by 2050.

National Infrastructure Commission 29th July 2021 read more »

The climate emergency will only serve to widen the inequality gap as it brings more extreme weather, more damage to the environment and people’s health. We know climate change does most damage to the most vulnerable in developing countries – because they have the least capacity to adapt to its consequences. We also know they are the people who bear least responsibility for causing the problem in the first place. A similar injustice is happening here. Deprived communities who have smaller carbon footprints and pollute less than wealthier communities often live in areas of higher pollution which are less resilient to the effects of climate change. The prime minister ended his speech with an ask, to: “come to Neil O Brien, or to me with your vision for how you will level up.” Here is our vision: levelling up the environment so that it is better for everyone — rich and poor, black and white – is as important as levelling up economic opportunities. The two are linked: investing in a better environment will also create jobs and growth. While our towns and cities are cleaner than they were, there is more to do to improve air quality, river pollution and offensive waste sites. Since the worst environments tend to be in the poorest places, tackling them is a double win: it will make poorer communities both greener and richer. We also need a fairer proportion of green and blue space in cities. This doesn’t just mean new parks. A flood defence doesn’t have to be a concrete wall: it can have trees, walkways and cycle tracks. The NHS could save over £2 billion in treatment annually if everyone in England had equal access to quality green space.

Times 30th July 2021 read more »

Energy Systems Catapult recently published a major report – Rethinking Electricity Markets – which advocates ambitious and far-reaching reforms to electricity markets to make them more innovation-friendly and focused on outcomes for consumers. Our most controversial reform proposal is to phase out CfDs – which many see as a huge success story for UK policy over the past decade, and vital for access to low-cost finance for the new generation we need. It is worth stressing we are not advocating the removal of strong incentives for low carbon generation. Rather, we suggest that CfDs should be replaced with a new market-wide decarbonisation policy mandate to drive the investment and innovation needed for a fully decarbonised electricity system. We agree that CfDs have been crucial over the past decade in helping to drive down the cost of renewables. We also agree that renewables will almost certainly form the backbone of our future electricity system – and therefore that we need lots more investment in them. Any reforms should be implemented to avoid creating any hiatus in investment. In the first instance, this will involve adapting CfDs to minimise distortions to bidding, dispatch, and location decisions before phasing them out. We also agree that it is important to secure good value for consumers in the returns they ultimately pay to investors in electricity assets. Our argument is that the challenges we now face are different to those faced when CfDs were introduced. We now need to phase in new policy tools that are specifically focused on delivering the transition to a fully decarbonised electricity system. Our Rethinking Electricity Markets paper (see table below) set out how we believe that CfDs increasingly impact the efficient functioning of markets. We believe that there are some significant risks if we stand still and remain reliant on mechanisms like CfDs. Conversely, if we push ahead with ambitious policy reforms that shape efficient markets across the whole electricity system, we can unlock a range of new opportunities and innovation that will save costs and deliver better service outcomes for consumers.

Energy System Catapult 29th July 2021 read more »