Tag: decardbonisation

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

28th Jul 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 – 20th July

This article points out that the Committee on Climate Change proposal for net zero emissions by 2050 relies on a major contribution from nuclear power. The author suggests that with existing plans only Hinkley C will be on-line in 2050.

Wednesday – 22nd July

A report from the Confederation of British Industry states hydrogen will play a significant role in decarbonised heating in future and suggests a mechanism like Contracts for Difference might be used to stimulate growth in developing the sector and driving down cost.

Thursday – 23rd July

‘.. and here in Orkney they are streets ahead on hydrogen technology ..’ : UK Prime Minister quoted during a visit to the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland.

According to the insurance company Direct Line, the lifetime cost of a new electric car is cheaper than for a new petrol car. UK Department for Transport figures show almost 100,000 zero-emissions vehicles were registered during 2019.

Friday – 24th July

This article says that a poll carried out in the UK shows only 1 in 4 people support generating power by burning wood from forests being classed as renewables and half are against this being subsidised by public funds. The piece claims UK Government pays £2 million each day in subsidies for generation of electricity from biomass.

Norwegian company Equinor (67% state owned) has announced that, for the medium term, blue hydrogen is more likely to play a role in decarbonisation of energy compared with green hydrogen. Blue hydrogen is generated from natural gas with associated carbon dioxide emissions captured centrally compared with green hydrogen which is generated from water using excess renewable electricity.

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.

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

28th Apr 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 – 20th April

A consortium of industrial power suppliers and end-users has been awarded funds from UK Government to support plans to make Humberside in eastern England the first industrial cluster to be ‘de-carbonised’ by 2040. The plans depend upon production of hydrogen and Carbon capture and storage.

Tuesday – 21st April

Industry body Oil and Gas UK has stated that UK offshore oil and gas met approximately two-thirds of UK oil and gas demand and almost half of total energy in 2019.

Article describes UK Government data showing biomass share of electricity generation has multiplied three-fold in the previous 10 years. Total power generation from all renewable sources, including biomass, has increased four-fold.

Wednesday – 22nd April

A project in NW England, aiming to become the UK’s first net-zero industrial cluster, using hydrogen and Carbon capture and storage, has received government funding in order to develop a plan.

Cargoes of liquid natural gas from the USA have been cancelled by Asian and European importers due to lower demand from the current business environment.

Thursday – 23rd April

Plans are being made to use heat from water in flooded former coal mines in northern England to heat homes.

Friday – 24th April

The fine spring weather across the UK meant that on Monday 20th April 2020 solar power generation broke a record. At peak generation solar power provided 30% of the electricity supply, generating 9.7 GW (for context UK electricity demand during the week varied between 20 and 30 GW).

Sunday 26th – April

EDF is preparing to submit an application for a large nuclear power station (Sizewell C) to be constructed on the English east coast.

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

4th Feb 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 – 27th January

Belgium has announced plans to use excess offshore wind power to generate supplies of hydrogen from water (hydrolysis). In seas offshore from Ostende, a 50 MW pilot is expected to be on-stream by 2022 with a commercial-scaled plant expected by 2025.

A study led by University College London has concluded that a Carbon tax, called the Carbon Price Support, in place since 2013, has led to the dramatic decline in coal-fired electricity generation. The study says the tax adds £39 to the average household energy bill and has led to an increase in imports of power from the EU.

Tuesday – 28th January

UK National Grid estimates 400,000 recruits will be needed/jobs will be available to meet net-zero 2050 target including (about half the number) to replace existing positions.

Thursday – 30th January

This article by a Professor at the University of Nottingham, covers the issue of decarbonising the energy for heating and using the existing infrastructure, proposing delivering hot water to radiators in UK homes from a centralised heat pump system using run-off water from rivers.

UK charity ClientEarth is suing the UK Government over its approval of plans to open a new coal-mine in north west England.

A 16-year old boy has placed himself on hunger strike in protest against plans to open a new coal-mine in north west England.

Charity and Think Tank Green Alliance places the focus on reducing personal energy demand for meeting net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 including relatively small changes to use of personal vehicles.

Friday – 31st January

UK Government department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has released statistics showing 233 MW of new solar power generating capacity was brought online in UK in 2019 bringing capacity to over 13 GW (for scale, average power demand for UK during the period of this update was a bit less than twice that volume and Committee on Climate Change report indicates UK will need about 40 GW of solar PV by 2030 to be on course for net-zero 2050).

A new residential development of approximately 1500 homes in north east England can be heated by providing water from a treatment plant handling water from abandoned coal mines in the area according to the Head of Innovation at the government body regulating coal.

UK electricity generator Drax, originally using coal, now using coal and biomass, is proposing using extracted carbon from the plant to create plastics.

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