Fourth Update of November 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)

Tuesday – 24th November

• UK Government has announced plans to double electricity generation from renewable sources in the next auction for Contract-for-Difference. CfD is the government’s primary method for supporting investment in renewable power generation.

Thursday – 26th November

• UK coal plants were brought back on-line this week to meet a shortfall in electricity generation from renewable sources due to the high pressure winter weather system.

• A group of energy providers has written to the UK Government to suggest carbon trading is a better way to reduce carbon emissions compared with a carbon tax. UK has been part of a EU carbon trading scheme since 2005.

• The UK Government and the offshore wind industry are investigating ways of overcoming challenges such as impact on air defence radar.

Friday – 27th November

• A UK Government committee (Public Accounts) has raised concerns over the cost of management of the country’s earliest 17 (“Magnox”) nuclear power stations.

Saturday – 28th November

• This article suggests that, in order to reach net-zero emissions, not only will carbon capture and storage be required for ongoing industrial emissions but there will be a need to remove legacy carbon emissions using Direct Air Capture (DAC).