COMPLETE UK ENERGY TRENDS – Page 3 – COMPLETE UK Energy Trends aims to gather publications from media or government departments of relevance to UK energy with a few lines of summary or capturing a key point. Updates will include overseas pieces considered of interest to followers of UK energy.

First Update of June 2020 – An overview of last week’s Energy news

8th Jun 2020 • 0 Comments

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 – 2nd June

May electricity generation in UK was coal-free. According to this article, wind generated 16% of power; solar, 11%; biomass 9% and natural gas 30%.

Offshore wind electricity generation developers have expressed disappointment in learning of a second delay to the planning decision, now put off until July.

Wednesday – 3rd June

Humberside industrial cluster is assessing southern north sea capacity for storage of carbon dioxide emissions from heat and power plants and a refinery as well as from hydrogen generation plants.

A company in northern England has been appointed to invest in plant which will take carbon dioxide emissions from a heat and power plant and convert it to Sodium Bicarbonate.

Thursday – 4th June

The UK Centre for Policy Studies has published a report which includes the view that hydrogen is a key component in decarbonising the transport sector for private, public and heavy goods vehicles.

Offshore wind trade bodies and Greenpeace have urged UK Government Environmental Audit Committee to ensure the UK invests heavily in offshore wind in order to achieve 40GW of capacity by 2030.

Friday – 5th June

A meeting held by the Wood Recyclers’ Association has heard reports of a drop in volume of imported wood into the UK due to a drop in demand related to recent changes in business activity.

Italy will re-introduce subsidies for geothermal energy. According to the article, 30% of Tuscan region power generation is from geothermal sources.

Fifth Update of May 2020 – An overview of last week’s Energy news

1st Jun 2020 • 0 Comments

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 – 26th May

Sweden has started a pilot project to capture carbon dioxide emissions from a hydrogen generation plant and then store them beneath the Norwegian seabed.

Netherlands advances plans to capture carbon dioxide emissions from Rotterdam Port industries and then store them beneath the Dutch seabed.

Wednesday – 27th May

EDF has submitted an application for construction of Sizewell C nuclear power plant on coast of SE England. Once operational, the plant would be capable of delivering 3.2 GW of electricity baseload, saving 9 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year according to the company.

UK Government regulator The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has published studies showing greenhouse gas emissions from imported Liquid Natural Gas are more than double the emissions of domestic supplies of natural gas.

Thursday – 28th May

Power generation company Drax announced that at one point in the week, biomass at their plant supplied almost 14% of UK electricity.

Article provides an update on plans to build a Liquid Natural Gas import terminal in NW England.

Gas network companies have announced almost £1 billion of investment, subject to UK Government approval in order to prepare infrastructure to deliver hydrogen to the network. Plans include carbon capture and storage projects in support of UK net zero emissions targets.

Friday – 29th May

Plans for 900 acres of subsidy-free solar power generation, the largest in the UK, on the south coast of England, have received UK government approval.

Fourth Update of May 2020 – An overview of last week’s Energy news

27th May 2020 • 0 Comments

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)

Monday – 18th May

Energy Voice opinion piece includes a study showing the rise of interest in hydrogen fuel, based on number of mentions in articles per year on a science literature database. In 2010, about 19000 were reported. In 2019, there were close to 48000. In the first 4 months of 2020 there have been 32000.

Tuesday – 19th May

Consumption of refined hydrocarbons has rebounded in China almost to December 2019 levels at 13 million barrels per day compared with 13.9 million barrels per day in December (13.4 million barrels per day in May 2019). Private vehicle fuel is driving the increase in a return to work which avoids public transport. Aviation demand remains low.

Thursday – 21st May

UK Government has announced a further £40 million ‘Clean Growth Fund” to encourage start-ups with business ideas consistent with net zero emissions targets.

A study by scientists at Imperial College London suggests there is more than adequate carbon storage capacity to achieve net zero emissions if the world chooses to take that route as recommended by International Panel on Climate Change and UK Committee on Climate Change.

An 8 MW district heating system will be developed for Barnet in north London providing heat and hot water for 6700 residential properties and a new office, retail, leisure site.

Friday – 22nd May

UK National Grid expects renewable energy to exceed demand this weekend due to very low demand (Monday 25th is a UK public holiday) combined with longer days, sunshine and wind. National Grid plans to ask renewable generators to switch off for periods in order to balance the grid supply and demand.

A challenge to UK Government decision to grant permission for what would be the biggest gas-fired electricity generation in Europe, has been rejected. The power station will be at Drax site in northern England.

RenewableUK envisages 3/4 of electricity to be from renewable sources by 2050 coupled with hydrogen generated from renewables during periods of excess supply.

Third Update of May 2020 – An overview of last week’s Energy news

19th May 2020 • 0 Comments

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)

Monday – 11th May

The record spell without coal contributing to UK power generation continues as UK reaches the 1 month ‘coal-free’ milestone.

Tuesday – 12th May

Belgium will shut the 2 nuclear power plants that contribute 50% of the country’s electricity by 2025 and replace the generation capacity with natural gas and renewables.

Wednesday – 13th May

UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hydrogen has launched an inquiry into how the sector can help support UK economic recovery.

The operations and maintenance headquarters for the world’s largest offshore wind farm (as measured by capacity) will be at Port of Tyne in north east England. The Dogger Wind Farm began construction in the north sea early in 2020 and will require £9 billion investment between 2020 and 2026.

Thursday – 14th May

A group of UK MPs has called on government to build a town-wide pilot test for all buses to use hydrogen as fuel in a similar manner to the ‘all-electric bus town’ announced in February 2020 with £50 million of public funds.

DNV-GL has announced results of its annual ‘Heading for Hydrogen’ survey. Results include that 1 in 5 senior oil and gas professionals (out of a sample of more than 1000) say their company is involved in a hydrogen project and over half expect hydrogen to play a major role in the UK energy mix in the coming decade.

Friday – 15th May

A survey shows investment in renewable energy projects in the UK (also Germany and Japan) is becoming less attractive quoting “the lack of commercial incentives or economic benefits” as ranking high on the list of barriers.

Energy companies in Norway have agreed to invest almost $700 million to develop a Carbon Capture and Storage plan. Using depleted north sea gas reservoirs to store CO2, 5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions will be removed from Norwegian and European industry each year when operations begin in 2024.

Saturday – 16th May

China’s natural gas production continues to grow. In April 2020, production hit an average 540 million cubic metres per day (for context, UK total demand was about half of that in 2018 and production was about half of that again).

Sunday – 17th May

FT reports that a combination of sunshine, wind and low electricity demand meant renewable electricity has set records recently in proportion of electricity from renewable sources; up to 30% of power generation over the previous 2 months compared with 23% for the same period in 2019.

Page 3 of 19

« 1 2 3 4 5 … 19 »