Second Update of September 2019 – An overview of last week’s Energy news

Below is this week’s summary. It should be a one minute read relevant to UK energy with links to documents for those who wish to read more.

(Click a bullet point to open the relevant article)

Tuesday – 10th September

• Glasgow, Scotland will host 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), in 2020 aiming to tackle global climate change. 30,000 delegates and 200 world leaders: it will be the biggest summit held in the UK.

• 4th Generation blog makes the case for nuclear power in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with growing global demand for energy. Nuclear power supplies approximately 20% of US electricity. Global supply is about 8% which is half that of 1996 peak.

Wednesday – 11th September

• A report from DNV GL describes a future of gas, renewables and CCS working together to provide a global energy supply.

Thursday – 12th September

• As the latest UK auction for offshore wind fixed price gets underway the industry is predicting a further drop in price due to a combination of factors including bigger turbines, more efficient installation and market competition. The Bloomberg report suggests the maturing and more predictable industry is attracting investors requiring a lower return.

Friday – 13th September

• A more distributed electricity generation system is causing an increase in emissions of the most potent greenhouse gas Sulphur Hexaflouride or SF6. Used for insulation to prevent short circuits and arcing, the material is 23,500 times more potent a greenhouse gas compared with Carbon Dioxide and increasing in the UK by 30-40 tons per year according to research from Cardiff University.

Saturday – 14th September

• UK Liberal Democrat Party conference gets underway with promise to beat UK Government net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 5 years (2045 versus 2050). (Liberal Democrat Party has 19 seats in Parliament’s 650 seat House of Commons).