Renew On Line (UK) 55

Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 155 May-June2005

1. £42m for Wave & Tidal

The UK’s first large scale wave and tidal current power generation farms could be contributing to the national grid within 3 years under a new support scheme worth £42m funded from the £50m Marine Research Deployment Fund announced last August. Energy Minister O’Brien said: “The marine renewables sector is at a critical point in its development from pipe dream, through R&D, to commercial viability.

2.NAO on the RO

The National Audit Office (NAO) has concluded that the Renewables Obligation (RO) should help the UK meet its 10% target for renewables by 2010, but this will increase costs to the consumer and taxpayer by over £1bn a year by

3. Carbon Storage

Responding to a Parliamentary Question about the potential for using oil-related infrastructure in the North Sea for carbon sequestration, Energy Minister Mike O’Brien said: ‘Our studies show that there are several operating fields where this can be technically feasible.  However the cost of CO2 captured and delivered to these sites and

4.‘Tidal lagoons OK’

In a new report on tidal lagoons, as proposed by the company Tidal Electric Ltd. (see Renew 151, 152), independent consultants WS Atkins Engineering have confirmed that the generation of electricity by this means is viable. The report also confirms that a proposed 60MW lagoon scheme in Swansea Bay could generate electricity competitively- estimated at

5. Renewables hit by new tax

New business rates set by the government will raise bills for green generators by up to 700%, while the equivalent rates for nuclear and fossil fuel plants are set to fall dramatically, according to the renewables industry.  This situation has  arisen because of the way in which business rates are now calculated- basically they are

6.RPA’s Green Energy Manifesto

With the election in mind, the Renewable Power Association (RPA) produced a Manifesto including a range of suggestions for supporting a broadened  renewables mix.  It notes that ‘at present, the Renewables Obligation works to focus development activity on onshore wind energy’  but felt that ‘on its own, wind

7. Renewable Energy Bill

Earlier this year, Lord Redesdale tabled a Private Member’s Bill designed to remove difficulties faced by those wishing to become involved in the renewable energy sector.  It includes a strong emphasis on microgeneration.

Addressing the Bill Lord Redesdale  noted that  in its paper on

8. Climate gets worse

2005 looks like being the year in which climate change really started to be taken seriously- with the UK playing a key role. February saw climate scientists gather at the Met Office in Exeter to review the latest analyses, under the title ‘Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change’. As we will be seeing in detail in Renew 156, it covered the latest computer modelling projections

9. UK  Renewables round up

Wind at Bradwell?

Npower Renewables is considering a plan for a large windfarm near the site of the now defunct nuclear plant at  Bradwell, Essex. It’s at an early stage and no application for planning permission has been submitted, but the idea is to install  up to 26 wind turbines, which they say would provide enough electricity for approx. 29,000 typical UK homes and offset the emission every year of around 117,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.  npower noted that this was equivalent to removing around 38,500 cars from the roads of Essex for the life of the wind

10 World Developments

EU subsidy bias against renewables

Europe provided subsidies of Euro 29.2bn to energy sources in 2001, but only Euro 5.3bn went to renewables, according to a report by the European Environment Agency, which argues that this is unfortunate since “with the exception of large hydro-electric power, renewable energy represents a much less mature industry with arguably greater need for technological and market support to enable full

11. World Renewables roundup

Latin America....

* Brazil is to sell 2.5 megatonnes of certified CO2 emission reductions from landfill gas project in Rio to the Netherland under the Clean Development Mechanism- the first Kyoto CDM backed project to get the go ahead- at a price of Euro 3.35/ ton, until 2012. The total estimated purchase will be worth Euro 8m.  In

12 Nuclear News

MP’s on Nuclear

“The political will is firming up for nuclear. What is being talked about, though, is new plants at the existing licensed sites.”   Martin O’Neill MP.

 “The nuclear question will be dealt with after the general election. The big decision people have to answer is are they more worried about nuclear energy or more worried about carbon reduction and climate change.”  Brian Wilson MP.

13. In the rest of Renew 155

The Feature in Renew 155 looks at the major one day conference 'Nuclear or Not?' organised by EERU at the Open University in March, with full details of what happened and links to follow up material. The Groups section  looks at Community Renewables around the UK,  FoE on Kyoto II,  and at  views from the EU Greens on Nuclear power. The Technology  and Reviews  sections  both provide space for Andrew Furgeson from the Optimum Population Trust to continue his redefinition of renewables  and why they may not be up to as much as we hope - he looks at PV and Biomass. The Technology section also looks at  Renewable Methane from mines,  and ongoing Biofuels battles.  The Reviews section looks at INforSE’s visionary Energy Scenario, and at some of the problems with Nuclear energy. The Forum section  includes a looks at major upcoming conference in Russia which EERU is supporting.