Third Update of April 2021 – 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 – 13th April

• The debate over proposals for a new coal mine in Cumbria (NW England) continues. One side claims that the plans are incompatible with emissions targets while the other side says coal is needed to make steel including for wind turbines.

Wednesday – 14th April

• Plans have been submitted to produce hydrogen using onshore wind and solar power on the west coast of Scotland.

Thursday – 15th April

• A hydro-electric power station is under construction on the River Mersey near Liverpool (NW England).

• More than 1 GW of subsidy-free solar power generation capacity has been added in UK. 175 MW of capacity was installed in the first 3 months of 2021. Recent additions are dominated by ground-mounted installations.

Friday – 16th April

• With support from major companies, work continues to develop the plant on north east coast of Scotland (known as the “Acorn Project”), to generate hydrogen from north sea natural gas with carbon dioxide by-product captured and stored.