1. Giving and taking

RO could be cut for Land-fill gas? And wind?

The government could reduce the level of financial support via the Renewables Obligation for some onshore wind farms without making them unattractive investments...

£30m for Low Carbon Buildings programme

On Nov 3. the DTI announced a £30m Low Carbon Building Programme (LCBP) funding package, over three years...MORE

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2. New Climate Review

The Governments new Climate Policy, initially expected ‘by the end of the year,’ seems to have been delayed until ‘early 2006’. But leaks suggested that, although the government now recognised that the existing emission reduction programme would not be sufficient, the new review was not going to be very radical- apart, possibly, from backing carbon capture and storage and more offshore wind. 

Policy option (carbon saving in million tonnes carbon)

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3. New Energy Review

The government will give a ‘yes or no’ to nuclear power by the end of the year following a decision by Tony Blair to inject ‘greater urgency’ into the nuclear debate. ‘We have to now make government decisions so we can put proposals before the British people next year,’ ...

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4. Decarb the UK

The Tyndall Centres new report Decarbonising the UK, which looks ahead at the technical and policy options, has some radical conclusions- the headline one being that emissions from aviation were rising rapidly and could overwhelm cuts in other sectors- see our report later...MORE

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5. UK Wind is fine

The UK wind regime is the best in Europe and is well matched to energy demand, with a high degree of reliability, according to a report by Graham Sinden from the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, commissioned by the Dept. of Trade and Industry...MORE

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6. Green heat- AEAT says- 4.7%by 2020

An AEA Technology report for DTI/DEFRA, ‘Renewable Heat & Heat from Combined Heat & Power Plants- Study & Analysis,’ looks at the potential for earth energy heat pumps, solar thermal water heating, biomass, energy from waste, anaerobic digestion and landfill gas technologies. greed biofuel obligations’.... MORE

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7. PAC slams‘£12.5 bn’ RO costs

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has raised  serious doubts about the cost of the  government’s plans to promote renewable energy- and whether they will succeed at meeting the ‘10% of electricity by 2010’ target. In a report published last Sept., it noted that the Renewables Obligation (RO) will cost consumers £1bn per year by 2010, implying a total cumulative cost by then of ‘at least’ £5bn, with a further £1.5-2bn for grid development by 2010....MORE

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8. Scots Adjust Aim

The Scottish Executives’ target of obtaining 40% of the electricity generated in Scotland from green sources by 2020 has now been changed to 40% of the electricity consumed in Scotland. The distinction is crucial since Scotland produces more energy than it needs and is a net exporter of power...MORE

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9. Energy Efficiency- mixed reviews

Building Regs revised

New measures to make buildings more energy efficient have been introduced, which the government claim will save nearly one million tonnes of carbon per year by 2010. They say that the changes to Parts F and L (ventilation and fuel conservation) of the Building Regulations are ‘two years ahead of schedule’, and  that the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive will make ‘a major contribution to the UK’s commitment to combat climate change’. ...MORE

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10. Carbon Saving- UK results so far

UK Industry cut the amount of carbon dioxide it released into the atmosphere by 14.4m tonnes in 2004, which was 8.9m tonnes more than the target set by the government. Part of this is due to the Climate Change Levy- which applies to most companies unless they use energy from renewable sources...MORE

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11. EU News

EU gets extra 1.3 GW (th)  solar

20% cut in EU energy by 2020

...but emissions rise by 1.5%

EC to rule on Scottish grid charges

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12. World News

The New Climate Pact

Reactions

What's involved 

US   'already doing it’

USA: COP-out...

..or should it be in?

Climate change insurance costs

Exxon still in denial…

12% from wind by 2020

Overload problems?

150GW of wind  in California?

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13. Nuclear News

Nuclear ‘Safe’

There is categorically no evidence that living near nuclear power stations increases the rate of childhood cancers, says a report from the UK’s  Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment.

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14. In the rest of Renew 159

The Feature looks at  the Intermittency issue- linking in to the OU conference on Jan 24- with coverage of the TPA review of the issues, the Tyndall Centres report on it and  articles by Bob Everett from EERU and Patrick Divine-Wright from DMU. The Groups section looks at Solar Cities and developments in Milton Keynes , while the Technology  includes a  look at Carbon Capture and Storage. The Reviews  include a  new look at microgen developments and some more thoughts on uranium reserves . There is also a report on the previous OU conference on community wind power- and why local ownership is  so important- which was  on Nov 15^th .The editorial offers 'Six alternatives to  nuclear', while the Forum sections looks at some of the more crazy aspects of  the atomic world- and the statistical world. 

*Conference   The OU EERU, has organised a conference  on the Intermittency issue: 'Integrating Renewables into the Energy System'  on Jan 24^th at the OU Milton Keynes. See http://eeru.open.ac.uk/conferences.htm