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Wave gets started
Limpet, the world’s first commercial wave power station, fed
electricity into the national grid on November 20. The new 500 kilowatt
Oscillating Water Column (OWC) plant began generating on the island
of Islay and is selling its output to the major Public Electricity
Suppliers in Scotland...MORE
Offshore Wind also gets
started
The UK’s first offshore wind farm, with two 2MW windtubines
installed, at a cost of £4m, 1km off Blyth Harbour in Northumbria,
is now generating at, we’re told, less then 5p/kWh, having been
formally switched on by (then) DTI Energy Minister Helen Liddell in
Dec. She said that ‘rapid development of offshore windfarms
over the years immediately ahead is a key element in the Governments
strategy for renewable energy.’...MORE
£69m for Green Fuels - £500m
for rural enterprises
Following on from the UK transport fuel price row, John Prescott
announced £69m over the next three years towards the promotion of
greener and cleaner vehicle fuels. Some £30m had in fact already been
allocated in the Comprehensive Spending Review last year- for the
‘Powershift’ project. Another £30m will go to expand the
Cleaner Vehicles Programme, set up last year to tackle pollution from
urban vehicles, and so far focussed on buses and taxis. The remaining
£9m is set to be used towards supporting technologies such as fuel
cells and hybrid vehicles. See our report later....MORE
The UK currently has 15 solid waste incinerators, but in
order to deal with the expected increase in municipal solid waste
(MSW), one estimate suggests that we will need 70 more combustion
plants. However, according to the Observer (29/10), statistics derived
from government sources suggest that the resultant emissions of
acidic nitrous oxide gas might be expected to ‘cause at
least 350 deaths a year’ for the 25 year life time of the
plants- 8,700 deaths in all....MORE
The consultation on the DTI proposals for the Renewables Obligation
(RO) has thrown up some interesting points on energy crops.
The RO, with its 3p/kWh buy out price, favours projects which can
get near to the buy-out price and discriminates against renewables
which are further from market convergence- like energy crops. The
capital grants scheme is meant to compensate, but so far there is
not much detail on the energy crops side- it’s mainly focussed
on offshore wind. The main discrepancy between the two resources
is that offshore-wind is capital intensive, but biocrops expenditure
is split between capital, fuel and operation. This clearly needs
to be addressed by the DTI...MORE
According to OFGEM, the UK energy regulator, consumers have
been systematically overcharged since privatisation, and prices
have been ‘higher than they should be’. That was the theme
of a ‘File on Four’ programme on BBC Radio 4 on October
31st...MORE
As we noted earlier, the DETR has provided a £69m package to tackle
pollution and promote cleaner, greener vehicles and fuels. Over
the next three years, the Government says it will ‘more
than double’ its annual expenditure
on encouraging the use and development of greener cars which can
‘cut pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and cut the
cost of motoring....MORE
The full level of 17.5% VAT has been removed from professionally
installed solar power systems (both for heat and electricity) and
subsequently from other professional installed renewable energy
systems (see Renew 128), so that they now only attract VAT at 5%.
However, this 12.5% cut does not apply to self installed ...MORE
£17m 3MW Orkney Wind turbine blown up
The end for one of the oldest and largest turbines in the world
came on Friday 11th November when it was blown up in a controlled
explosion. The three megawatt two bladed Wind Energy Group turbine
at Burgar Hill in Orkney was the largest of its kind when
it was inaugurated in 1987 as an experimental machine, by the then
Energy Minister, Mr Cecil Parkinson, now Lord Parkinson. Now the
turbine, which cost £17m to build, has been brought to the ground...MORE
With a national election imminent, the main parties have been making
their policies on renewables and energy generally clearer. The Conservatives
have come out in favour of obtaining 30% of the UK's electricity
from renewables by 2030, but have also apparently seen fit to back
a rethink on nuclear power. Trade and Industry spokesman David Heathcoat-Amory
has, it seems, indicated that the construction of up to eight new
generation pressurised water reactors, as used at Sizewell B, should
be considered. The Conservatives have also said that they will abolish
the Climate Change Levy, which they feel will be ineffective...MORE
The World Commission on Dams (WCD) launched its final report
in London last November. It came out with very strong recommendations
that were immediately supported by many NGO's worldwide. The WCD
was headed by ABB’s ex-CEO Goran Lindahl and represented industries,
NGO's, academia and governments. It created a landmark by urging
adoption of fundamental sustainability criteria for large dams.
According to the Climate Action Networks journal ECO ‘these
criteria have been continuously neglected in the past. So far, large
dams have forced up to eighty million people to vacate their homes
and land. Dams contribute to large-scale biodiversity loss, damage
to riverbeds and floodplains’. This, said Marita Koch-Weser,...MORE
Breakthrough on renewables targets
MEP’s have insisted that EU member states should be set binding
targets for increasing the share of electricity generated from renewable
energy sources under the draft renewables directive proposed
by the European Commission (EC) last May. Previously the percentage
targets were seen as ‘indicative’ rather than compulsory.
According to END’s Daily ‘The move signals an impending
battle with EU governments over the issue because most oppose the
idea....MORE
There seem to be many views about what actually happened at COP-6,
the sixth gathering of the Conference of Parties to the
UN Climate Change Convention in the Hague last Nov. Especially
on who was to blame for its collapse and what are the implications.
Was it the USA, Prescott, or the French who were at fault? Is it
the end for Kyoto? Are such meetings a waste of time? All these
views and more were heard at a post-COP-6 meeting at the Royal
Institute of International Affairs in London last December...MORE
Let’s have some more radioactivity
In his latest book ‘Homage to Gaia: the life of an independent
scientist’ James Lovelock claims that ‘sometime
in the next century, when the adverse effects of climate change
begin to bite, people will look back in anger at those who now so
foolishly continue to pollute by burning fossil fuel instead of
accepting the beneficence of nuclear power’ His ideas were
also featured in an article in the Guardian last year (16/9/00)...MORE
An extract from the Forum section of Renew 130
Small is beautiful again?
Everyone's is raving about Micropower. But it
isn’t the complete answer says David Milborrow.
Thank goodness you put a question mark on the front cover of Renew
129. Micropower enthusiasm is indeed spreading and small power systems,
renewables and storage all have enormous potential. The electricity
system of the future, it is claimed, will use decentralised power
systems; these will reduce emissions and the days of large centralised
generating plant are numbered. ..MORE
In the
Rest of Renew 130
Renew 130 looks at sustainable cities with an overview of
the urban renewable energy options by Dave Elliott in the
Technology section, plus a review of the new LRC report on renewables
in London., which sees London having to rely heavily on waste
combustion for green power. In the Feature , Dave Elliott looks
at the empowered consumer and asks can consumers become more
proactive and begin to change the energy system themselves- both
through their purchasing power and through the development of novel
patterns of energy use and energy provision.
The Technology section looks at the debate on reafforestation
and carbon sinks- a topic also covered in the Groups section-
and at emissions from Air transport. And in Forum Tam Dougan
looks the problems of large hydro.
NATTA/Renew
Subscription Details
Renew is the bi-monthly 30 plus page newsletter
of NATTA, the Network for Alternative Technology and Technology Assessment.
NATTA members gets Renew free. NATTA membership cost £18 pa (waged)
£12pa (unwaged), £6 pa airmail supplement.
Details from NATTA , c/o EERU, The Open University, Milton
Keynes, MK7 6AA
Tel: 01908 65 4638 (24 hrs) E-mail: S.J.Dougan@open.ac.uk
Also see http://technology.open.ac.uk//eeru/natta/rol.html
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