1. £2.3m more for Wave Energy
The DTI has announced Government funding of up to
£2.3 million to support the development and demonstration by Wavegen
of three new wave energy devices off the Western Isles. The devices,
located in shallow waters, will be based on an extension of the oscillating
water column principle already demonstrated in Wavegens shore mounted
LIMPET on Islay. ...MORE
2. MoD blocks over half of UK’s Wind Farms
‘Of the 506 proposals received during the last three years, the
Ministry of Defence has objected to a total of 238’ according to the
Secretary of State for Defence, responding to a parliamentary question
on May 15th. Dr. Moonie added ‘There have been
a greater number of objections within the three Tactical Training Areas
(in central Wales, north Scotland and the border region of northern
England/southern Scotland), but out of these areas there is no set pattern
as to where the objections lie’....MORE
3. Waste Hierarchy Defended
Expansion of Edmonton Waste Combustion Plant
Blocked
Brian Wilson, Energy Minister, has turned down an
application to extend the existing 55 MW energy-from-waste power station
at Edmonton, North London. The extension would have an annual
throughput of waste of around 285,000 tonnes over and above the existing
station’s capacity of 550,000 tonnes per annum. This waste combustion
plant has been the focus of much campaigning by Greenpeace amongst others,
on the grounds of the risks from emissions...MORE.
4. Scottish Wind Boom….but opposition
mounts
More than 130 new wind farms are being planned throughout
Scotland in an ‘energy revolution that will transform
the country into a world leader in clean energy’,
according to the Sunday Herald (7th April 2002). It claimed that ‘more
than 30 of the plans are at an advanced stage ...MORE
5. 30% from Welsh Renewables by 2010 ?
Friends of the Earth Cymru have launched a campaign
calling for economic policies to encourage and enable the generation
of over 30% of current Welsh electricity demand from renewable sources
by 2010. They want to have 6 Terawatt hours per year to be supplied
from renewable sources - currently Wales consumes 20 TWhrs/year and
exports 10TWh p.a. to England. ...MORE
6. Green Party ‘£200m for Solar’
The Green Party launched a solar power
initiative as part of their 2002 local elections campaign. Following
the lead of Germany, where a Green Party-led environment ministry
is running a "100,000 solar roofs" programme, the UK Greens
are highlighting the social, environmental and economic benefits of
solar panels mounted on rooftops for either water heating or electricity
production - as they put it ‘using sustainable
technology to provide cleaner, cheaper energy and stimulate a jobs
boom’....MORE
7. White paper on Energy - the lobbying
builds up
With the government response to the PIU report
in the form of a White paper due early next year, and a consultation
paper out seeking comments, pressure for a raft of decisions has emerged
from a range of interest groups, not least the nuclear industry, who
are hoping for special treatment. That even seems to extended to Fusion.
In parliament on May 2nd Boris Johnson MP got a commitment from Patricia
Hewit that the government will ‘consider sustaining fusion power research
as part of the future of our science research programmes’....MORE
8. Carbon Fraud ?
The UK government has been accused of misusing
public money after it emerged, shortly after the new emissions trading
system was launched, that it had guaranteed more than £100m compensation
to some of Britain's biggest companies to encourage them to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. The UK introduced the world's first carbon
trading scheme in April....MORE
9. Energy efficiency at all costs ?
Professor Jake Chapman, a director of National
Energy Services and a member of the team that produced the UK Energy
Review published in Feb. by the Cabinet Office’s Performance and Innovation
Unit, told delegates at a conference on the National Home Energy Rating
system that it was time to start creating serious motivations for
people to adopt energy efficiency improvements....MORE
10. CHP backed...
The Government has at last provided more support
for Combined Heat and Power in the form of exemption from the
Climate Change Levy, which is worth £15m per year, increasing to £25m.
In addition to exemption for Good Quality CHP from the Climate Change
Levy, the new DEFRA strategy includes wider eligibility for Enhanced
Capital Allowances, the £50m Community Energy programme, and a reduction
in VAT for grant funded domestic CHP. The Government target is to
have least 10,000 MWe Good Quality CHP capacity by 2010...MORE
11. Chief Scientist pushes the nuclear option
- Renewables are not enough
The Governments Chief Scientist, Prof. David
King, has been at it again, singing the praises of nuclear power,
fission and fusion, and even talking about the joys of using nuclear
electricity to generate hydrogen. In a lecture to the Science and Technology
Foundation at the Royal Society...MORE
12.Weather report 2080 - it will be wet and hot
‘Climate Change Scenarios for the United Kingdom’
is a new set of scenarios prepared by the Hadley Centre for
Climate Prediction and Research, Tyndell Centre for Climate Change
Research and University of East Anglia published by DEFRA which illustrates
how the UK climate may change over the coming decades as a result
of global warming. The UK Climate Impacts Programme co-ordinated the
research.
The key findings of the report are...MORE
13. WREC 2002
The World Renewable Energy Congress 2002
in Cologne followed the tradition of previous WREC’s with a vast turnout
of renewable specialists from around the world assembling to exchange
ideas....MORE
14. Wind booms around the world
Wind turbine installations worldwide soared by
45% or 6.5 gigawatt (GW) in 2001, bringing global total windpower
capacity to 24 GW, the according to the European, American and Indian
wind energy associations, in a joint statement issued in the runup
to the World Wind Conference in Paris in April. Europe, by far the
most active wind region, increased its capacity by more than 35% or
4.5 GW MW in 2001 while the USA installed nearly 1.7GW and total capacity
increased by more than 60%. India, the third-largest market after
Europe and the U.S., installed around 240 megawatt and exceeded 1.5GW
of total installed capacity...MORE
15. Global Emissions grow
The U.S. Energy Information Administration
(EIA) has predicted a sharp increase in world demand for oil in the
next two decades with a corresponding increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
EIA’s recently released international energy outlook projects that
continued demand will require an extra 44 billion barrels of oil each
day over current production by the year 2020. That extra oil will
benefit OPEC producers but may wreak havoc on climate conditions,
as the increase will put about 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxides
emissions into the atmosphere in the same period...MORE
16. Earth Summit inputs
The UN World Summit on Sustainable Development
was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, between 26th Aug- 4th Sept
and attracted the usual crowd of politicos, international agency staff,
NGO’s and environmental activists: we’ll report in full in Renew 140.
We look here at some of their initial inputs to WSSD, focussing on
a key priority, identified both within the UK and internationally,
the need for a greater provision of sustainable energy supplies...MORE
17. The new Nuclear Debate
With the consultation on the PIU energy review
underway, we review the key inputs on nuclear power so far.
Immediately following the publication of the PIU
review, British Energy and BNFL announced a joint feasability
study into the AP1000 reactors as a possible replacement for the Advanced
Gas-cooled Reactors, when they began to be retired after 2010 (see
Renew 137/138). But that was widely seen as a kite flying exercise
- no funding provisions yet exist.
US Nuclear Push
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has earmarked
$3m in the 2002 fiscal year to streamline applications to build new
nuclear power plants
Public want green energy not nuclear
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
has published the results of surveys that reveal the British public’s
views on energy issues....MORE
18. Forum - from
Renews139’s Forum section
Public Wave Power
David Ross submitted a resolution to SERA for their AGM in June,
calling on the ‘Labour Party, and its government, to implement the
wave energy programme introduced by Tony Benn when he was energy secretary
in 1976 to build 2,000 megawatt power stations in the deep sea, the
size of giant oil tanks, to generate electricity. These to be owned
and operated by the State in competition with the privatised sector
of the electricity industry, in fulfillment of Labour’s long-standing
commitment to a mixed economy.’ The resolution was passed....MORE
19. In the Rest of Renew 139
In a bumper 34 page issue, the Feature looks
at global energy scenarios, and their limitations,
while at the other end of the scale our Technology section includes
a look at plastic PV, elephant grass, and biohydrogen. Our
Reviews section looks at what MP’s had to say about the PIU report
,the EU REFIT debate, a PEW centre report on the growth of
carbon trading , and the excellent new book on Innovation
by Boru Douthwaite And our extensive Groups section includes coverage
of the Community Renewables programme, and the new
PV projects around the UK.
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