3. The battle for Renewable

RPA begins to Bite

The newly launched Renewable Power Association has been making waves. ‘Renewable generators are facing bankruptcy, or seriously curtailed activity, because of the new electricity trading arrangements and the further delay in the introduction of the Renewables Obligation.’

Meanwhile, they noted, the government has undertaken to write off the nuclear industry’s £42bn historic waste disposal and decommissioning liabilities Clearly the RPA does not intend to let the government have an easy time. Piling on the pressure, it organised a well attended seminar, in January, on NETA, the New Electricity Trading Arrangements, at which it was clear that many people in the renewable energy community felt that tinkering at the margins would be no use- instead what was needed was a political initiative to give renewables and CHP a chance to compete.

See later for a report on the NETA crisis

MOD blocks offshore wind

The Ministry of Defence has objected to four of the UK’s proposed 18 new offshore wind power sites because of fears of interference with air defence radar systems. ‘Where we are testing planes we need to minimise the risk to aircraft and personnel,’ a spokesman told Reuters. The MOD wants to block offshore sites in the Irish Sea at Southport, where a scheme has been put forward by German wind energy developer Energie Kontor, and at Shell Flat which is home to three schemes. The developers at Shell Flat include Danish energy company Elsam, Royal Dutch/Shell and CeltPower, a joint venture between Scottish Power and Japanese trading consortium Tomen Corp. "These sites are near Warton where British Aerospace undertakes aircraft training for the RAF", said the MOD spokesman. In addition, according to Reuters, the MOD is in talks with London Electricity and Germany’s Enertrag as it is unhappy about their plans for a wind power site off Cromer in Norfolk.

Shell says it has carried out studies of the effect on radar and believes any impact can be managed by existing systems. ‘The wind farm is not in the line of approach of any runway. Blackpool airport which is closer to the farm than Warton has not anticipated any problem,’ adding the company was in talks with the MOD on the issue.

The DTI has set up a working group on the radar issue which includes officials from British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), and from the military. "The idea is to get some movement in the current impasse. We need to bring some clarity to the issue," said Chris Shears, BWEA board member responsible for radar issues. The group has commissioned three reports and hopes to issue guidelines on the radar problem within a year, he said. The MOD is also trying to block the huge 80 MW onshore Kielder wind farm in northern England on radar grounds. The project’s developer, Ecogen, said it was asking the courts to review the Department of Trade and Industry’s decision to stop the scheme, taken on MOD advice. Source: REUTERS

Oops: one of the windturbines off the coast from Blyth Harbour in Northumbria lost a blade in the recent storms. It may have been hit by lightning.

PV and Net Metering

Energy Minister Brian Wilson recently commented, in response to a Parliamentary Question about the sale price of photovoltaic energy for national grid, that, although this was a matter for the market, ‘the best price recently mentioned to the Department has been 6.5p kWh paid by a company offering a ‘net’ metering" deal, that is a deal in which the supplier buys PV energy from generators at the same price that they would charge them for electricity purchases’. He added ‘some European countries have taken steps to encourage net metering, and some, notably Germany and Spain, have gone further by legislating for the utilities to pay renewable generators a premium price for all the electricity they wish to export to the network. In the case of PV, this is about 33p/kWh per kilowatt hour in Germany and 25p/kWh per kilowatt hour in Spain.’

He noted that ‘the Government are encouraging the uptake of PV in the UK through both domestic and large-scale field trials, soon to be followed by a major PV demonstration programme to rival the German and Japanese PV roofs programme. It is also working to overcome infrastructural barriers through simplified grid connection, fairer tariffs and more positive planning guidance’.

Not before time, you might say.

For more on PV see Technology in Renew 136 .

Source: HANSARD, 14 November 2001: Column: 760W

Energy Crops still stalled

The problems facing biomass/energy crops in the UK were reflected by the recent, hopefully temporary, suspension of publication of ‘Biomass Farmer & User’, the newsletter produced by biomass pioneer George Macpherson. He comments that ‘biomass energy has not taken off yet in the UK. It should have done, two years ago, but successive governments have hindered developments by offering incentives and then making them too difficult and time-consuming to obtain.’ He adds ‘I for one have about 12 acres that would be ideal for short rotation coppice willow, but there is no way I can afford to plant it’.

The Country Land and Business Association evidently feel similarly, commenting recently that red-tape and planning restrictions were impeding efforts to grow green-energy crops- as well as wind farm projects. The association said targets to lower greenhouse gas emission would not be met unless the government changed its planning guidance to allow more schemes to overcome local objections. It complained after a government planning inspector upheld North Wiltshire council’s decision to refuse planning permission for a power station to burn locally produced willow. Rupert Burr, an association member, who had planted 85 acres of willows for the project, said: "This is classic proof that there is no such thing as joined-up government. It is small businesses and farmers like me who are trying to get projects up and running. I believe that energy crops are now dead in the water until the government sorts out the planning problems." Source: FT