Fourth Update of February 2020 – 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)

Wednesday – 26th February

• A consortium led by French energy company EDF is considering plans to generate hydrogen at-scale using UK nuclear power.

Thursday – 27th February

• UK electricity generation plant, DRAX in northern England, has announced it will close two remaining coal-fired stations in a year. Four units generating electricity from burning wood pellets will continue.

Friday – 28th February

• A plan to build a Carbon capture and storage (CCS) site at Teesside in NE England has been announced by a consortium led by BP and including Shell, Total, Equinor and ENI.

• Article describes UK’s first hydrogen-fuelled public train being introduced to the public in 2019.

• A wind farm of 100 turbines offshore northeast Scotland, with a total 1 GW generating capacity, has completed pile-driving. Jacket structure is required for the turbines due to higher water depth than typical at around 50m.

Sunday – 1st March

• This article asks if 2020 will be ‘the year of hydrogen’ and reports on hydrogen being introduced into the gas grid at Keele University campus in central England.

• A report for trade association Energy UK has suggested UK is behind where it needs to be in storage and flexible ‘demand-side’ solutions for the energy transition including encouraging households to use electricity off-peak through reduced tariffs.