1. The Energy Review
‘If the review was
open, transparent and fair, looking at the options on economic grounds
across a whole life cost assessment of nuclear stations, the solution
may well point to renewables,’ said Elliot
Morley ex-environment minister. When the governments Energy
Review finally emerged it took a different view- backing nuclear
along with renewables, clean coal & efficiency
2. Reactions to Energy Review
The Energy Review generated
a lot of debate, which still rumbles on.
The Conservatives
criticised it for being too timid and too vague. Shadow Industry Secretary,
Alan Duncan said: ‘We have been told for months
that urgent decisions must be made now. Yet the Review puts off making
any of the big decisions and instead proposes new consultations and
areas to consider. The responsible thing
3. Submissions to the Energy Review
Your choice
The governments summary of views submitted
to the Review included data (p.37) on the choices of technology by respondents.
The totals were:
-
4. Yet more reviews.. Tory Energy Review
In their own interim energy review,
released just before the governments review, the Conservatives
said that nuclear power should be used only as ‘a last
resort’. Shadow trade secretary Alan Duncan said his party wanted
to ‘explore every conceivable method of generating
electricity before we go to nuclear’. The Tory review says that
when it comes to nuclear there would have to be ‘total
transparency over the full lifetime costs
5. Around the UK
Barrow Offshore Wind
The Barrow Offshore
Wind (BOW) project, 4 miles off the South Cumbrian coast, has
now been commissioned- the UK’s newest offshore wind farm. It
represents an investment of more than £100 million by its joint
owners, British Gas parent company Centrica and Danish
6. Energy Efficiency - the Lords talk sense
On 27 April Baroness
Perry of Southwark commented on the report by the House Of Lords
Science and Technology Committee on Energy Efficiency
(2nd Report, HL Paper 21) and the government response to it, and to
the Committees’ earlier report on the practicalities of renewable
energy. She said ‘the Government’s responses to both
reports have been extremely disappointing. In the words of the committee’s
annual report
7. FoE: Waste burn ‘not green’
Incineration
of domestic waste can produce up to 33% more greenhouse gas than burning
gas in power stations, according to a study commissioned by Friends
of the Earth ‘A Changing Climate for Energy from Waste?’ prepared
by Eunomia Research & Consulting. ‘The government and waste industry
must stop peddling the myth that waste incineration is green energy’,
said Michael Warhurst of FOE. “The government must
make
8. Biomass- will it ever grow?
Responding to the report that emerged
from Sir Ken Gills Biomass Task Force last Oct.,
the government has produced an action plan which accepts that energy
from crops, trees and waste can make a strong contribution to reducing
greenhouse gas emissions. It sets out 12 ways to try to make this happen,
including a capital grant scheme for biomass boilers; the establishment
of a new Biomass Energy Centre to provide expert
9. EU Developments
The European Commission
has set out its vision for an Energy Strategy for Europe
in a new Green Paper, which invites comments on six specific priority
areas, containing over 20 suggestions for possible new action. It identifies
three core objectives for EU energy policy: sustainable development,
competitiveness, and security of supply and puts a lot of emphasis on
completing the move to a single EU-wide electricity market
10. US Developments
President Bush says he wants to get
the USA off imported oil, but given that domestic
oil production in the US has been declining since the 1970s, this presents
some problems. The enthusiasts look to bio-ethanol, and certainly the
USA does have a lot of room to grow biofuels like corn (see below).
However the US Dept. of Energy has now claimed that its oil reserves
could be boosted 4-fold through advanced injection of CO2 into depleted
oilfields- the Enhanced Oil Recovery concept. This is already done in
the US and elsewhere on a small scale, but the DOE says
11. World developments
The Earth’s temperature could
rise far higher than previously predicted, according to a draft of the
next report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC). It says that it is proving hard to place a reliable
upper limit on how quickly the atmosphere will warm as CO2 levels increase.
The three previous reports assumed that a doubling of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere would increase average global temperature by between
1.5 and 4.5C. by 2100. However, some computer models have now foreseen
increases as high as 11C. But the real issue is
12. Nuclear News
The government’s decision to
bail out nuclear generator British Energy has
left the taxpayer facing ‘a large and uncertain liability’,
the National Audit Office has warned. The NAO
noted that, ‘in the light of its assessment of
the threat to electricity supplies and to safety’, the
DTI had agreed ‘to take responsibility for
13. In the rest of Renew 163
In the Feature Dave Elliott looks
wave and tidal power The Technology section
looks at various new tidal current power projects, low carbon housing
, and the Green Party's energy plan . The Groups
section includes a look at what the GLA are up to in London and the
Eurosolar Awards. The Reviews section looks at SDC, Green Alliance and
other submissions to the Energy Review, plus Mitsui Babock's new energy
scenario. There is also an editorial on the
energy review and a lively Forum section.
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