Brown Says Downturn Won’t Hit Green Plans

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday the global economic downturn would not affect a government drive to reduce the country’s carbon emissions. However, an industry executive cast doubt on the ability of the UK’s existing power transmission network to cope with planned increases in wind power output. Brown told a wind energy conference in London ministers were committed to meeting a target to produce 15 percent of the UK’s energy supply from renewable sources, such as wind and wave power, by 2020. “You may have heard some people say that these difficult economic times should or will reduce the government’s commitment to building a low carbon economy. They should not and will not,” Brown said in a recorded statement shown by video to delegates at the British Wind Energy Association’s (BWEA) conference. Doubts have been expressed about the UK’s ability to meet its renewable energy targets, with investors warning that companies need more financial incentives to develop wind farms. A report in Britain’s Observer newspaper at the weekend said delays in gaining planning approval for farms, long delivery times, escalating costs, and technical problems were all threatening to derail government plans. But BWEA Chief Executive Maria McCaffery said in a news conference on Tuesday the industry was confident it would be able to meet the targets. “It’s an area where there is tremendous positivism and confidence,” she said. However, the UK’s power transmission grid system is not capable of dealing with the output from planned new wind farms, said Keith Anderson, director of the renewables division of Scottish Power, part of Iberdrola SA. The grid is between 30 to 40 years old and needs immediate modernisation and investment, Anderson said at the news conference. A proposed upgrade of the main Beauly-Denny transmission line in Scotland, which would allow a significant increase in renewable energy capacity in the far north of the United Kingdom if it gets the go-ahead, was likely to take 10 to 12 years to carry out, he added. “We need more upgrades of that size and scale,” he said. “We cannot afford for that process to keep taking 12 years. If you start the process now for the offshore and marine sector, you’ll already be in 2020. It needs to happen now. “Scotland contributes a huge proportion of the onshore target to the overall target and if you don’t start building the transmission lines, you block some of that development and reduce its potential.” BRITAIN OVERTAKES DENMARK The United Kingdom would achieve three gigawatts of installed wind energy production capacity this week, up from one gigawatt in 2005, with the completed construction of Centrica Plc’s Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms near Skegness in eastern England, the UK’s Department of Energy & Climate Change said in a statement. Earlier Tuesday, Centrica said it had gained approval for another 250 megawatt project off the Lincolnshire coast and was exploring the possibility of constructing two further wind farms totalling 1,000 MW. Britain had now overtaken Denmark as the world’s largest producer of energy from offshore wind, with 597 megawatts of capacity fully built, the government said. Offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom now have the potential to power the equivalent of about 300,000 UK homes, it said. “What this means is the creation of an unprecedented 100-billion-pounds market for renewable energy sources in just over a decade,” Brown told the conference. “That will create huge new business opportunities - and around 160,000 jobs.” Reporting by Phil Waller; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien, David Cowell and Simon Jessop, Reuters.

Flood risk highlighted over potential nuclear site

An environment consultant based in Suffolk has asserted that the proposed £6 billion Sizewell C nuclear power station could be at risk of flooding.

Opposition groups to the site have pointed out that the changing coastline nearby, as well as the risk of erosion and the rising sea level, could make the site an uncertain location for a future nuclear power plant.

Suffolk and Essex news source EADT 24 reported that Pete Wilkinson, an environment consultant and former member of a government radioactive waste disposal committee, stated that it is imperative that the correct "checks and balances" are used when determining new sites for nuclear power stations.

"It is ironic that while the government claims it needs nuclear power to combat climate change it is proposing to site the new plants in areas which will be at the forefront of climate change," he pointed out.

NewEnergyFocus reported this week that new government criteria have been drawn up to regulate the suitability of potential nuclear power sites across the UK.

Nuclear power to come to east of England?

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is considering potential sites for nuclear power plants.

Sites can be nominated by current nuclear power operators or other large-scale electricity generation facilities in the UK, New Energy Focus reports.

British Energy has put forward a number of sites following the publication of the Strategic Siting Assessment consultation that sets out the criteria for new sites.

Among those to be put forward by the company include several in the east of England, such as Bradwell in Essex and Sizewell in Suffolk.

"We have considerable experience operating nuclear power stations in Britain and as we have sites capable of supporting new facilities with cooling water and grid connections in both England and Scotland, we have every reason to expect them to be considered appropriate for potential development in the future," said head of British Energy’s nuclear development team Gareth Brett.

Business secretary John Hutton recently claimed that nuclear power is "an essential part of our future energy mix" and fundamental in weaning the UK off its oil dependency.

Nuclear decommissioning cost ‘to keep rising’

The cost of decommissioning nuclear plants including Sizewell A in Suffolk is set to continue rising beyond an already extended budget.

An official report in January estimated that it would cost £73 billion to clean up the sites and deal with the waste material, an increase of £12 billion on 2003 estimates.

But even the upwardly revised estimate will not be enough to deal with the mountains of waste that have been accumulating since the 1950’s, according to the Nuclear Decomissioning Authority director Jim Morse.

He told the BBC there was a "high probability" costs would further escalate.

"We’ve still a lot to discover, we haven’t started waste retrieval in those parts of the estate where the degradation and radioactive decay has been at its greatest."

Meanwhile Sizewell B nuclear power station went offline yesterday as hundreds of thousands of people were caught in a blackout when seven power stations failed.

It was the first time in three and a half years the Sizewell B reactor has suffered a cut.

Decommissioning work stalling

Employees working on nuclear decommissioning are "twiddling their thumbs" because there are not enough funds, according to unions.

While the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is set to award a decommissioning contract which could be worth up to £20 million, Mike Graham, national secretary of Prospect union said that existing decommissioning work has stalled.

He told Scenta news site: "There are a number of people who are going into work twiddling their thumbs because there is no money available for decommissioning work to be carried out and no money to pay people off."

This is despite the fact that, according to nuclear consultant Ian Jackson, 1p in every pound of income tax is being spent on funding decommissioning.

Almost half of the budget for Malcolm Wick’s Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is spent on decommissioning the UK’s old nuclear facilities such as the Bradwell site in Essex and Sizewell in Suffolk.

But despite the large chunk of national funds, the NDA has suspended plans to issue contracts for cleaning up old Magnox reactors and is scaling back decommissioning work to focus on Sellafield.

Bradwell could be split from British Energy holdings

The sale of British Energy, which owns sites in Essex, could have encountered an obstacle following the government’s demand that one of its nuclear sites must be sold.

According to the Times, the government wants to avoid a situation in which the entire nation’s nuclear power in the is in the hands of one company and has made the sale of one of nine British Energy sites a condition of its sale of its 35 per cent stake in the firm.

The sites throughout the UK are highly valued because communities there are more supportive of nuclear power and are already well connected to the power grid.

As well as the British Energy locations, the government could make available places held by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Bradwell in Essex has land owned by both British Energy and the NDA and so could be a candidate for a sell off.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that only one firm, the French EDF, placed a bid for British Energy, though others such as RWE, Centrica and Iberdrola have not ruled themselves out.

Nuclear decommissioning firm expanding

A paint and construction company is working on decommissioning nuclear plants in Dunbar and Suffolk.

Pyeroy, based in Gateshead, is already working in Suffolk and has bid to take on more nuclear decommissioning jobs under the new director of its environmental services division Malcolm Hood.

Mr Hood said: "Nuclear decommissioning work is gathering momentum and Pyeroy is well placed to win its fair share of business. The company’s expertise in asbestos remediation work, which has many similarities to nuclear decommissioning work, provides a great platform to move forward.

"There is a strong resource of skilled people from which we can draw and develop a dedicated team of specialists who will spearhead our growth and success in this exciting area of opportunity."

He added that the firm, which has landed the contract to paint London Bridge, is to re-skill its 100-strong asbestos removal workforce so they can deal with the challenges of decommissioning, including dismantling the core structure of power plants such as Sizewell.

European energy interested in sites for nuclear plants

European energy giants have expressed a firm interest to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in purchasing land near Bradwell in Essex, Sellafield in Cumbria and Wylfa in Anglesey.


French firm EDF and Germany company RWE are the favourites to buy the land at auction, though other companies such as Iberdrola from Spain are also said to be interested.

The land in Bradwell, as at the other locations, is farmland, but could become very valuable if it came with permission to build a nuclear power station.

Those three sites would be attractive to power companies because they already have nuclear plants and so construction of new ones would not face the local opposition expected at other locations.

As a result of existing nuclear plants, they are also near skilled workforce and have good connections to the electrical grid.

The NDA recently announced the sale of British Energy, with RWE putting in an offer valuing the company at £11 billion.

Decommissioning existing nuclear plants is forecast to cost £73 billion.