Earthquakes and other natural disasters will be included in the finalised conditions, but terrorism will be left to national security agencies.
Solarcentury
The company I founded in 1998 to design and supply solar energy solutions for the built environment. Solarcentury
Solar Aid
The charity I founded in 2006, with a 5% contribution of Solarcentury profits, to help deliver solar lighting to Africa. Solar Aid
Archive for May, 2011
Italian government moves to stop nuclear newbuild
May 24, 2011 NuclearBurlusconi wins a confidence vote on measures that include a 1-2 year stop pending review.
Tepco says reactors 2 and 3 melted down early.
May 24, 2011 NuclearMelted fuel is being cooled at the bottom of pressure vessels, the utility says. Number 3 started melting March 13 (Day 3) and number 2 March 14. This on top of the first reactor meltdown already announced.
Green investment bank will be able to fund nuclear.
May 24, 2011 Finance, NuclearNuclear funding will be possible from 2015, but offshore wind and industrial energy efficiency will dominate, says Vince Cable. The bank’s initial £3bn will catalyse a total of £15bn of new investment by 2015. Flood defences will also be included.
Companies need to prepare for a post-growth focus on wellbeing.
May 24, 2011 Change for GoodSo Jules Peck argues. “There is a rising debate about the need to move beyond growth, with numerous Nobel prizewinners, politicians and business leaders such as Adair Turner, Ian Cheshire, Bernie Bulkin and 77% of the members of Prince Charles’s Cambridge programme for sustainability leadership agreeing on the need to question and dethrone growth.”
Indian solar programme faces a host of problems.
May 24, 2011 Clean EnergySo says the Renewable Energy Agency. From lack of data and trained personnel through to inexperience of investors.
China faces worst drought in 50 years.
May 24, 2011 ClimateThis time in the normally water-rich south, where monsoon rains failed. Droughts have become progressively worse in the last decade, in a nation where water availability per capita is the lowest of any industrial economy.
Coal pressure on China’s utilities creates power shortage.
May 24, 2011 CoalChina’s utilities defy Beijing and cut energy production, creating the latest power shortage to threaten growth. Coal prices are high as a result of soaring demand for electricity, yet the utilities are forced to sell electricity at low levels specified by the government. They fear bankruptcy. Average residential rates in China re 8.2 cents per kWh, compared to 11 in the US.
CFTC charges oil traders with fraudulent trading in 2008.
May 24, 2011 OilThis is only the second prosecution the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has made since it launched a nationwide investigation of oil trading in 2008.
Toshiba says it will favour renewables over nuclear.
May 24, 2011 Clean Energy, NuclearTheir fear is that post-Fukushima red tape will slow the nuclear industry. As a result, operating profit is expected to double by 2014. Company President Norio Sasaki: “If everyone around the world is against nuclear power, there is no point in us saying it is a pillar of our strategy.”
German nuclear shutdown may mean blackouts, energy companies say.
May 23, 2011 Clean Energy, NuclearWind and solar may not be enough to compensate in winter by the time of the target shutdown in 2022, four energy companies have told Angela Merkel. Germany makes a final decision when its ethics committee report is ready on 28 May.
Green Investment Bank to invest £15bn by May 2015.
May 23, 2011 Clean Energy, FinanceIt will be independent of the Treasury and able to borrow from the capital markets from April 2015, says Nick Clegg.
BP’s CEO offers an interesting view of recent history.
May 23, 2011 OilBob Dudley says of BP’s performance during the Macondo spill, in a speech in China: “In time, I hope that it will be recognized as an act of great corporate responsibility.”
Oil production is at record levels in EIA data, for all categories.
May 23, 2011 Oil75.28 mbd for crude, condensate + tar sands; + natural gas liquids = 83.84 + other liquids = 88.22. These figures, analysed in The Oil Drum, show big discrepancies with the public JODI dtabase, which suggests that the highest figures were in 2006, absent other liquids.
Gas threat to US windfarm growth.
May 22, 2011 Clean Energy, GasSo says the new US chief of Iberdrola, expecting a decline next year. The US has gone from 10 GW to 5.1 GW, to perhaps as little as 3 this year.
US NRC refuses to certify Toshiba reactor.
May 21, 2011 NuclearThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission will not give the go ahead until “technical issues” are fixed. The AP1000, viewed by many US utilities as the next generation nuclear plant, appears to be in trouble.
Shell given go ahead for world-first giant floating LNG plant.
May 20, 2011 GasWood Mackenzie estimates the cost at $11.5bn. The ship will be six times bigger than the biggest aircraft carrier, and in service by 2017.
UK government agrees to develop oil shock response plan with industry.
May 20, 2011 OilCompanies of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security met Chris Huhne at DECC, and this was the outcome. ITPOES had been asking this of government since 2008.
“Greenest government ever: but so far only in target setting”
May 20, 2011 CommentariesBusiness Green guest editor Jeremy Leggett fears the coalition’s emerging green policy record could end up worse than its predecessor’s.
“I thought many others would feel the same”
May 20, 2011 Change for Good, Commentaries….”but that proved to be naïve”. James Murray and Jeremy Leggett discuss peak oil, Damascene Conversions, and the realities of running a green business. Business Green.
“An introduction to our guest editor”
May 20, 2011 CommentariesBusiness Green: Meet author, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Jeremy Leggett.