Guardian: “The government’s controversial electricity market reform (EMR) programme has been dealt a serious blow with the resignation of the top civil servant working on the scheme.” Read more
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
EDF CEO ready to quit if he can’t get his way with Hinkley Point reactor..
May 6, 2013 Nuclear
Times: “The chief executive of EDF Energy will leave Britain if the French company’s £14 billion Hinkley Point reactor project collapses.” Read more
Top official working on EMR resigns as analyst warns HMG off gas reliance.
UK energy prices: most inflation is not due to green energy, but gas.
Guardian: “The simple answer is that green energy is not costing you nearly as much as you’ve been led to believe. Yes, energy bills have soared. A new government report analysing the cost of energy and climate-change policies on the cost of energy lays the blame squarely at the feet of global gas prices, followed by network costs.” Read more
Report urges use of gas to avoid UK energy crunch.
FT: Closing Britain’s coal-fired power stations should continue if the government is to meet carbon cutting targets, according to a cross-party report. It argued that gas power generation could providing enough capacity to avoid an energy crunch in the next decade.” Read more
Big 6 take average £95 profit per household on dual bills.
Guardian: “The big six energy suppliers have been accused of “cold-blooded profiteering” after official figures showed they had more than doubled their retail profit margins over the last 18 months and were now earning an average of £95 profit per household on dual-fuel bills.” Read more
One in five UK households now in debt to their energy supplier.
Guardian: “Soaring energy costs and an exceptionally cold winter have squeezed family finances to the extent that 20% of households are now in debt to their energy supplier, according to comparison website uSwitch.” Read more
EDF “in big trouble”, French nuclear expert tells BBC: owes €39 bn.
April 8, 2013 Nuclear
Telegraph: “Mycle Schneider, a former energy adviser to the French government, questioned whether EDF could finance the investment. “EDF is in big trouble. The whole of the nuclear power industry in France is in big trouble,” he said.” Read more
MPs and academics call for NAO to review UK nuclear negotiations.
April 6, 2013 Commentaries, Nuclear
Telegraph letter: “The Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Treasury are negotiating with the French nuclear corporation EDF about the financing of possible new nuclear in the UK. Through these negotiations, the Government is aiming to guarantee a set price for nuclear energy – a ‘strike price’. This price will be well above the market price for electricity, meaning that UK taxpayer and energy consumer will be paying the difference. This contract will be locked in for very many decades – up to 40 years.” Read more
SSE warns of blackouts within 3 years as gas plants close.
March 21, 2013 Gas
Guardian: Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE, said there was a “very real risk of the lights going out” within the next three years. SSE intends shutting down power plants, enough to have supplied 2m homes, as the stations are either uneconomic or coming to the end of their lives.” Read more
UK gas supplies could run out next month after cold March.
March 21, 2013 Gas
Guardian: “Forecasts suggest that gas supplies in the UK could theoretically be exhausted by 8 April, requiring Britain to turn to imports from Norway and Russia.” Read more
Gas plants shutting across Europe in face of demand drop, cheap coal, RE.
REW: “Three years ago, Germany’s largest utility spent 400 million euros ($523 million) building a natural gas-fired power station. Later this month, the company may close the plant because it’s losing so much money.” Read more
UK energy supplies heading downhill fast, warns Ofgem.
Guardian: “The energy regulator’s chief executive, Alistair Buchanan, issued the stark warning to consumers and businesses to prepare for higher prices as power plants close, foreign gas supplies shrink and increasing demand tightens the British energy market.” Read more
SSE CEO doubts UK energy bill will keep the lights on.
Ian Marchant in the Guardian: “Some key questions already loom large as we get ready to deliberate the finer details. Firstly, will the government be able to deliver on all of the responsibilities it is taking on itself? Read more
“Renewables and gas likely to power UK future”: FT.
December 9, 2012 Clean Energy, Gas
FT: Angela Knight, head of EnergyUK ….says Britain cannot depend on wind, solar and biomass alone. “It is gas with renewables and nuclear – it’s not an either/or,” she said. “The fact is you need gas as a back-up.” Read more
Big energy warns Osborne push still does not make gas economics stack up.
December 5, 2012 Gas
FT: “”I don’t think anyone’s going to be rushing out to build on the basis of today’s statement,” said an executive at one of the Big Six energy suppliers. Industry analysts say new gas-fired power stations are being held up mainly because the economics do not stack up, not because the policy framework is not right. “The recent history of UK gas-fired power stations is one of challenging market conditions, with many gas plants currently loss-making,” said Ronan O’Regan, director, energy and renewables, at PwC. “This is the biggest barrier to investment”.”
JL thought: This can’t be encouraging for HMT. I wonder how long they will doggedly push this line if industry isn’t fully behind them, with polls showing they gain no political advantage.
Solar in UK energy bill: investment-critical decision still pending.
November 29, 2012 Clean Energy, Commentaries
Solar Power Portal: Commenting on the setting of a suitable strike price for solar, Jeremy Leggett, Chairman of Solarcentury told Solar Power Portal: “In practice, it’s now vital that the strike price for PV is set at a level that really drives forward investment in the technology. Ministers now have a golden opportunity to make good their 22GWp by 2020 ambition. Read more
UK wind industry says energy bill will “fire up” renewables.
November 29, 2012 Clean Energy
Gordon Edge in the Guardian: You don’t have to be a whizz at maths to see that the targets will require a steep growth rate in renewables. It would be a remarkable trajectory, taking wind from a 1% share of the nation’s electricity to around 25% in under 15 years, overtaking nuclear power in the process. But can this actually happen? Yes it really can.” Read more
UK energy bill detail delay will stall renewables, campaigners say.
Guardian: “Reforms to the energy market announced on Thursday will yield “once in a generation” opportunities to cut bills and greenhouse gas emissions, according to the energy secretary, Ed Davey. …But the (contract-for-difference) prices will not be set until next summer, at the earliest, leaving investors in such power plants hanging.” Read more
Senior DECC officials wined & dined by nuclear industry repeatedly.
November 28, 2012 Nuclear
Guardian: “Senior civil servants responsible for ensuring the building of the UK’s new fleet of nuclear power stations have been extensively wined and dined by nuclear industry lobbyists, documents released under freedom of information reveal.” Read more
UK energy bill: no 2030 decarbonisation target, no funds for energy efficiency.
Guardian: “Energy firms will be allowed to triple the amount of money they add to customers’ bills to pay for renewable power, nuclear and other environmental measures, under plans to be announced by the government next week. The deal over a new energy bill, struck after weeks of sometimes bitter negotiations between the coalition partners, will mean the total amount energy suppliers can add to domestic and business bills will rise from £2.35bn this year to nearly £10bn at the end of this decade. Read more
The UK energy bill is a (losing) “£200bn bet on our energy future.”
Damian Carrington in the Guardian: “There is a simple way to think about the complex energy policy decisions made today: it is a £200bn bet on the UK’s energy future. What’s more, the money on the table belongs to you. Win or lose, every electricity and gas customer will pick up the tab for this wager for decades to come.” Read more
“The UK energy bill is all about nuclear subsidy.”
Paul Dorfman at The Ecologist: “Germany has produced record volumes of renewable energy in the first half of this year, and its National Association of Energy and Water (BDEW) recently published estimates revealing that, from January 2012 to June 2012, renewable energy technologies accounted for more than a quarter of the country’s electricity supply for the first time ever. Actually, the production of renewable energies in Germany is expected to grow faster than the government’s own initial forecast and account for almost half of the country’s electricity within a decade. Read more
Trio of top scientists calls for a moratorium on new conventional power.
A world-class trio of British, German and Italian scientists publishes a letter in Nature, based on a research paper in publication [1], arguing that renewables could be mobilized far faster than many people realise. They calculate that the solar component of an all-renewables energy infrastructure could be in place in the UK as soon as 2020, mobilizing solar PV no faster than Germany already has. They also summarise evidence from Germany showing how peak power prices have been reduced by solar deployments in recent years. On the basis of this, the scientists – Keith Barnham, of the Physics Department at Imperial College London; Kaspar Knorr, of the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology, in Kassel, Germany; and Massimo Mazzer of the CNR-IMEM, Parma, Italy – call for a moratorium on the building of new conventional power plants. Barnham expands in the Guardian. I and Frans at Solarcentury welcome the new development.