The Energy Bill is coming

The Energy Bill is coming

Editor of Businessgreen, James Murray

So the rumour mill was wrong. The Energy Bill and its promised electricity market reforms made it into the Queen's Speech, and right near the top, alongside the commitment to introduce a Green Investment Bank, to boot.

Those sources who suggested to the BBC that the bill was likely to be delayed to make way for Lords Reform look to have been mischief-making and the biggest shake-up of the UK's energy market for over two decades should now be completed within the next 12 months.

The Queen's one line promising that her government will "propose reform of the electricity market to deliver secure, clean, and affordable electricity, and ensure prices are fair" represents a major victory for the green wing of the coalition, a huge boost to the burgeoning low carbon economy, and the long-awaited answer to the UK's looming energy crisis. Make no mistake, this is a hugely significant piece of legislation.

All of which begs the questions, why were so many people willing to believe it might be delayed?

The answer lies in the way the government has, for political reasons, chosen to underplay one of the most ambitious pieces of legislation in its agenda.

If you look at the criticism aimed at the Queen's Speech it breaks down into three areas. Firstly, it does not contain enough measures to stimulate growth; secondly, it spends too much time on peripheral issues, such as Lords reform; and thirdly it is too conservative (with a small c), lacking the kind of bold reforming measures the coalition claims to be in favour of.

And yet in electricity market reform the government has an answer to all these criticisms. This is a package of proposals designed to drive up to £200bn of investment and create thousands of new jobs. Its central goals are to keep the lights on while tackling climate change and keeping energy bills low, so it is anything but peripheral to people's long and short term concerns. And thirdly it is a genuinely bold and reforming package of proposals, one that if the coalition wanted to play party politics it could point out Labour never got round to in 13 years in office.

To read more go to : http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/james-blog/2173495/energy-coming

Source :Businessgreen.

World’s largest wind-turbine test site to open

Work has started to build what is described as a world-leading facility that will accelerate development for the United Kingdom offshore wind industry, vastly increasing UK expertise in the renewables sector.

The new wind-turbine testing facility costs 35 million pounds and will help next-generation offshore wind turbines get to market faster.

The test rig, being built at the National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in north-east England, will be the largest and most advanced in the world for research and development of wind-turbine drive-train technology.

The 15-megawatt (MW) capacity facility will allow the whole wind-turbine nacelle - the structure that contains all the generating components, such as the gearbox and drive train - to be tested on land and under cover in a massive steel-framed building. Two 250-tonne cranes will lift test pieces into place. The test rig would “provide Narec with a controlled environment to test the next generation of offshore turbines in accordance with international standards, before they are deployed in large numbers offshore”, said Tony Quinn, Narec’s director of major projects and assets.

Narec has invested 150m pounds to create, it says, “the UK’s national translational research centre for accelerating grid integration of renewable energy systems and catalysing the development and deployment of offshore renewables - wind, wave and tidal energy generation technologies”.

To read more go to : http://www.londonpressservice.org.uk/lps/tradeindustry/businessclimateinvestment/item/298540.html

Drive to promote hydrogen-powered transport

A new industrial and scientific group has been established to evaluate the potential for hydrogen as a fuel for ultra low-carbon vehicles - aiming to roll out a realistic solution in the next few years.

The internal combustion engine has dominated road transport for 100 years. Motor industries everywhere now face massive challenges such as climate change issues, recent oil crises and the grim global economic situation.

The Intelligent Energy company has become a founding member of UK H2 Mobility, a government and industry group aiming to accelerate the commercial roll-out of hydrogen vehicles in 2014/15. Intelligent Energy is a global, clean-power systems group that was originally a spin-out company from Loughborough University, central England,

The importance of this project is highlighted when it is considered that the UK automotive industry is a pivotal part of the country’s manufacturing sector, adding value of 9.5 billion pounds to the UK economy and directly employing about 180,000 people. About another 200,000 are employed in the industry’s supply chain.

The UK H2 Mobility initiative brings together three government departments and industrial partners from the utility, gas, infrastructure and global vehicle manufacturing sectors.

The group will evaluate the potential for hydrogen as a fuel for ultra low-carbon vehicles in the UK before developing an action plan for an anticipated roll-out to consumers in 2014/15.

To read more go to : http://www.londonpressservice.org.uk/lps/environmentenergy/item/289040.html

US brings heavy tariffs against Chinese solar panels

Investigation finds China kept prices low with subsidies, but some in US warn tariff will slow adoption of solar energy

Workers assemble solar panels in a Suntech factory in China. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

The Obama administration imposed heavy tariffs on Chinese solar panels on Thursday, after finding that China is flooding the US market with government subsidised products.

The preliminary decision, that China had dumped solar products on the US for less than the cost of manufacture, will result in tariffs of between 31% and 250% on Chinese imports.

It was seen on Thursday as a mixed blessing.

US solar panel makers, who brought the original complaint, are expected to benefit. But the tariffs, by forcing up prices, are expected to slow the adoption of solar power more generally.

There were also fears the move could lead to a broader US-Chinese trade war.

To Read More : http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/17/us-tariffs-chinese-solar-panels

The Latest on China and Climate Change

The Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change, John Ashton, visited Beijing on 19 and 20 April for a programme designed to take him outside the “green ghetto” and into the corridors of macro-economic and foreign policy making.

Ashton found a striking consensus in central government and the private sector on need for a low carbon transition. Assistant Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said China’s concept of “scientific development” was at heart an attempt to find an economic growth model that did not harm the environment.

Central planners argued that fundamental changes in global population and resources meant China simply could not adopt the same high-carbon pathway as the developed world. The Vice President of the State Grid (which serves over a billion customers with electricity, has £165bn in annual revenues, and employs 1.5 million people) said their customers would be required to install 200 million smart meters over the next four years. This will be a huge boost for efforts to introduce tiered power pricing which incentivises energy saving (see news story below).

Key questions remain however on Carbon Capture and Storage, the emissions pathway between 2020 and 2050, construction of effective Carbon Markets, and provincial burden sharing of a proposed energy consumption cap. Interlocutors cautioned on the huge power of high carbon interests in the provinces and State-Owned Enterprises, and their ability to thwart initiatives from the centre.

As well as being the biggest carbon emitter, energy producer, and energy user, it’s perhaps no surprise that China also produces the largest amount of waste in the world. If better waste management policies are not adopted, the negative environmental, social and economic impacts will be colossal. In recent years waste disposal has become a significant source of greenhouse gas, water, air, and soil pollution.

This month China set a new wholesale price for waste energy power fed into the nation’s grids. The price has been set almost 50% higher than the feed-in tariff for coal power. China’s National Development and Reform Commission announced developers of waste-to-energy plants will be paid 0.65 yuan (approximately 6 pence) per KWh. The grid price for coal is between 0.3 to 0.4 yuan per KWh. The rate is also higher than the feed-in tariff of 0.61 yuan/KWh for wind power, but lower that the 1 yuan for solar PV power.

Source : Foreign Office

Planting ‘fake trees’ by the roadside to clean the air

Clean-up: tiny tubes that suck in CO2 from the air are being developed by Professor Eleanor Campbell’s team. Image by EPSRC

Planting ‘fake trees’ by the roadside to clean the air

Land alongside places such as motorways that is unsuitable for tree planting could still be used to reduce levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to the latest research.

A system of “artificial trees” - microscopic tubes that suck in carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, as natural trees do - is being developed by leading chemists, engineers and medical researchers in the UK.

As little as a unit of one square metre containing the tiny tubes could adsorb the same amount of carbon as 10 average trees. The research is being carried out at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland with funding from the Research Council UK energy programme, led by the UK Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council.

“In some ways, the unit would work like an artificial tree,” said Professor Eleanor Campbell who is leading the project at Edinburgh University. “A key advantage of course is that the units could be used in built-up urban areas where tree planting is not possible.”

In the future, larger versions of the units could be placed near roads or on rooftops to make better use of land and spaces in reducing our carbon footprint. If the technical hurdles are successfully overcome, a patentable unit could be developed and available for purchase within five years.

Each tube would be about one micrometre long and one nanometre in diameter - one micrometre is one millionth of a metre, one nanometre is one billionth of a metre. The tubes will be made of pure carbon with some additional chemical groups that will attract and trap the CO2.

Once saturated with carbon, the “used” tubes will be regenerated by a rapid heat pulse generated from a renewable energy source, such as a solar cell, and the CO2 will be concentrated and stored in small canisters. These canisters may be exchanged periodically for fresh ones as part of a regular collection round.

To read More : http://www.londonpressservice.org.uk/lps/environmentenergy/item/305860.html

The “In Depth” Essay

The eye-watering expense of nuclear power

Sizewell nuclear power plant, seen from across the sea at Southwold, Suffolk. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Just for a moment, forget whether you're pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear, and reflect on the British coalition government's policy for nuclear power.

It wants to see 10 new reactors built over the next few years. It sees this as a critical part of its carbon management strategy, and absolutely necessary to help "keep the lights on". It believes it will strengthen the UK's energy security at a time when North Sea oil and gas continues to decline. It is working closely with a wide range of energy companies to help deliver the 10 new reactors. That's the plan. Some think it's great; some don't much like it, but see it as a necessary part of addressing accelerating climate change; some think it is seriously misguided.

It doesn't really matter what you think: it cannot possibly deliver – primarily for economic reasons.

Nuclear reactors are massively expensive. They take a long time to build. And even when they're up and running, they're nothing like as reliable as the industry would have us believe. Few if any companies have balance sheets that are strong enough to cover the capital costs of a new reactor – with a starting price today of about £6bn, and growing by an average of 15% per annum. For that reason, the funding has to come either from private investors or from governments: no reactor has ever been built anywhere in the world without substantial government subsidy, and no reactor ever will be built without substantial government funding in future.

However, private investors are not enamoured by nuclear power. The construction risks are too high (with cost overruns and substantial delays all but guaranteed), and the political risks (with governments constantly changing their mind about levels of support) even higher. The higher the risk, the higher the costs of capital.

Which means governments always have to step in – including the UK government. For the time being, ministers in DECC are sticking to the wording of the Coalition Agreement that a new nuclear programme can only proceed "provided that they receive no public subsidy". This is now so transparently dishonest that it will not be possible to maintain that fiction for much longer, especially when the details of the electricity market reform (EMR) proposals are published.

To read More : http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/may/04/expense-nuclear-power-energy-coalition?intcmp=122

Source : The Guardian

.And don’t forget we have a Facebook site where you can also catch up on the latest Climate Change stories and more from the British High Commission: http://www.facebook.com/ukinnewzealand plus follow us on twitter @ukinnz

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