(UK) United Kingdom

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In last week’s Guardian Jeremy Leggett had a post that seems to argue that solar energy is the UK’s best option for keeping the lights on. Well, how about solar?[read more]

UK forested land

A simple thought experiment. What if instead of building the 3.2 GW Hinkley C nuclear power station, the UK built a biomass plant instead?[read more]

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Image SourceThe Treasury sure is in a pickle right now, of that there is no doubt. EDF is playing the hardest ball they’ve likely dealt with in quite some time over the increasingly controversial and murky Hinkley nuclear reactor, a project set with such promise coming into the new year, that many, myself included, heralded this as the...[read more]

New figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) show renewable energy is now providing almost 12% of the UK’s electricity.The amount of electricity generated from renewable sources increased to 11.7% in the third quarter of 2012, up from 9.1% in the same period in 2011. New renewable energy generating plant is...[read more]

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Over the last five years the EU has put great effort into promoting CCS. The Commission has led this, creating a legislative framework for the technology to exist in the field. With such an effort and so much political capital spent, one would expect to see a burgeoning CCS industry, or at least the beginnings of it, appearing across the EU. Unfortunately this is not the case.[read more]

Ed Davey, credit: UK DECC

Over the weekend the UK Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, announced plans to secure a continuing role for natural gas in the UK power generation sector. So continues the rollout of a comprehensive policy framework designed to decarbonise the UK power sector, ensure security of supply / cost and provide sufficient certainty for the necessary investments to take place.[read more]

Green Economy: blessing or curse? was the title of a panel debate hosted by the UK newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, late last week. I was fortunate to participate in this, alongside Oliver Letwin MP, Minister of State (providing policy advice to the Prime Minister in the Cabinet Office) and Cabinet attendee. Other panel members were UCL Professor Paul Ekins, Jeremy Nicholson from the Energy Intensive Users Group and renewable energy venture capitalist Ben Goldsmith. Although Mr Letwin chose not to offer any opening remarks, his subsequent comments revealed some interesting thinking in the UK Government on energy and climate change.[read more]

  Weather based renewables tend to be, by their nature, unpredictable. Your solar panel works most efficiently when there are clear skies and no clouds, while wind power clearly needs wind. Anything based on rain requires a good downpour. This means that, although you can store energy in batteries for later, these renewables are...[read more]

As global natural gas production has risen and shale gas in the US impacts on the energy outlook for that country in particular, there has been increasing discussion about the impact of natural gas on climate change. Several scientific papers have recently been released questioning the carbon dioxide benefits of natural gas over coal in power production.[read more]

Last Saturday (August 27, 2011) The Times featured the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on its front page. Carbon markets are becomingly increasingly important and should appear in the mainstream media, but it’s also important that the media provide accurate context to fully explain often complex issues to the public. This particular story suggested that the EU ETS was being manipulated by power companies, enabling them to pass on to their consumers the full cost of carbon on the allowances that they are granted for free.[read more]

One of the big issues that has been debated in the EU since before the ink was even dry on the 2008/2009 Energy and Climate package (EU ETS Directive, CCS Directive, Renewable Fuel Directive etc.) is whether the EU emission reduction target should be adjusted up to 30% from the base 20% originally agreed. Formally, the shift to a 30% target is linked to the nature of an international agreement on climate change. However, there is now a case for rethinking this approach.[read more]

On Tuesday in the House of Commons, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, announced that the UK would adopt the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee and shift the economy towards ambitious 2030 carbon reductions.But there is an important caveat to this ambition – namely the need to ensure alignment with the EU.[read more]